UMASS/AMHERST 


aiEDtDboasiDHTEa 


P  RT 


FIVE  COLLEGE 
DEPOSITORY 


E    FACTS 

FOR  THE 

RKER, 

THE 


FRUIT    GROWER, 

AND  THE 

PUBLIC. 


The  Horse  in  the  Slobber  Grass. 


4aQ 

837 


FURNISHED  BY  JOHN  FORMAN,  Esq.  FARMER  AND  NURSERY- 
MAN, WESTERN  NEW-YORK. 


BY    M.   R.    BARTLETT 


NEW-YORK : 

19HED    FOR    THE    PROPRIETOR    BY    NAFIS    &    CORNISH,    278    PEARL-ST. 
PHILADELPHIA  :    JOHN    B.    PERRY,    CS  1-2    NORTH    SECOND-ST. 
BOSTON  ;    LEWIS    &   SAMPSON     WASHINGTON-ST. 


1S43. 


LIBRARY 

OF  THE 


MASSACHUSETTS 

AGRICULTURAL 

COLLEGE 


sour       499 
B37 


, 


■■  pctcm 


/    1 


DATE   DUE 

.vMO 


(a 


PRIME    FACTS 

FOR  THE 

FARMER, 

THE 

FRUIT    GROWER, 

AND  THE 

PUBLIC. 


The  Horse  id  the  Slobber  Grass. 


FURNISHED  BY  JOHN  FORMAN,  Esq.  FARMER  AND  NURSERY- 
MAN, WESTERN  NEW-YORIL 


BY    M.   R.    BARTLETT 


NEW-YORK 

PUBLISHED    FOR    THE   PROPRIETOR    BY    NAFIS    &    CORNISH,   278   PEARL-ST. 

PHILADELPHIA  :    JOHN    B.    PERRY,    88  1-2    NORTH    SECOND-ST. 

BOSTON  :    LEWIS    &   SAMPSON,    WASHINGTON-ST. 

1843. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1843, 

By  M.  R.  BARTLETT, 

in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States,  for  the 

Southern  District  of  New-York. 


TO  WHOM  THIS  MAY  COME. 

We  the  undersigned,  citizens  of  the  State  of  New -York, 
do  hereby  certify  that  we  have  been  personally  acquaint- 
ed with  John  Form  an,  Esqr.  of  Onondaga  Hollow,  West 
New- York,  for  the  last  thirty  years,  and  that  we  know 
him  to  have  been  a  most,  ingenious  and  critically  exact. 
Farmer, — the  first  detector  of  the  cause  of  the  Horse  Slob- 
ber, &c.  and  a  greatly  successful  Fruit  Grower  : — having, 
some  forty  years  since,  first  introduced  into  these  parts,  many 
of  the  most  choice  and  valuable  kinds  of  fruit  in  the  country, 
and  subsequently  supplied  our  northern  and  western  inhabit- 
ants with  nearly  all  of  their  present  stock  of  trees. 

New- York,  November  20,  1842. 


O* 


J.  L.  Richardson, 

Willet  Ray  nor, 

Elam  Lynds, 

C.  A.  Baker, 

A.  Northam, 

R.  Woolworth, 

H.  F.  Fellows, 

Thomas  B.  Fitch, 

William  Downs, 

John  Lave, 

John  Dunford,  (20  years) 

A.  J.  Butler,  (13  years) 

William  Barker,  (30  years) 

Henry  Van  Keeser,  (20  years) 

L.  O.  Phinney, 

Joseph  Knight,  (15  years) 

John  Leslie, 

Ezra  Town,  (17  years) 

Stephen  Porter,  (12  years) 

Z.  W.  Cagswell,  (good) 

R.  Raynor,  (20  years) 

A.  Phillips, 

S.  House, 


B.  D.  Nexen, 
L.  H.  Redfield, 
M.  D.  Burnet, 
J.  Fleming, 

E.  Phillips, 

F.  Benson,  (Sheriff,) 
J.  J.  Hopper, 
Hiram  Putnam, 

M.  Williams,  M.  D. 
H.  W.  Dunford, 
D.  C.  Lansing,  D.  D. 
Samuel  Eager, 
John  C.  Brown, 
John  P.  King, 
Samuel  Lamed, 
H.  A.  Perkins, 
George  N.  Germell, 
Daniel  Dana, 
Isaac  Rawn. 
P.  N.  Rust, 
William  Malcolm, 
William  B.  Kirk, 
Luther  Marsh. 


DEDICATION 

This  little  work,  prepared  in  behalf  of  the  great  and  grow- 
ing interests  of  the  country,  is  most  respectfully  dedicated  to 
the  various  AGRICULTURAL  SOCIETIES  of  the  United 
States  of  America,  by  a  devoted  friend  to  the  perpetual  pros- 
perity of  the  whole  union, — "one  and  undivided,'' 

M.  R.  BARTLETT. 

City  of  New-  York, 
Jan.  1,  1843. 


PREFACE. 

The  Few  Prime  Facts,  submitted  to  the  Public  in 
the  following  pages,  are  gathered  from  patient  observation 
and  carefully  conducted  experiments,  through  many  years 
of  practical  enquiry  and  close  investigation  ;  not,  however, 
by  a  mere  book  man, — a  vague  theoriest,  but  a  Practical 
Farmer,  and  most  successful  Fruit  Grower. 

He  sensibly  felt  the  evils  to  which  these  Facts  refer,  and 
early  sat  himself  down  in  an  absolute  wilderness  of  conject- 
ure, to  discover  the  causes  of  them.  The  progress  was  slow  ; 
but  the  end  was  sure  ;  and  each  cause,  as  it  became  fairly  de- 
veloped, almost  invariably  pointed  out  a  remedy  for  the  evil 
which  it  inflicted. 

He  now  comes,  at  his  earliest  convenience,  to  place  both 
the  cause  of  these  evils,  and  the  cure  of  them  before  his  coun- 
trymen ;  and  he  does  it,  not  in  abstruce  technicalities  and 
erudite  phrases,  but  in  plain,  farmer-like  language,  and  in 
terms  suited  to  common  capacities. 

He  indulges  the  hope  that  his  brief  statements  will  prompt 
to  further  and  more  scientific  investigation,  and  that  they 
may  finally  lead  to  a  high  degree  of  perfection,  in  the  pres- 
ervation of  the  horse  and  the  cow,  and  in  the  cultivation  of 
fruit  trees. 

He  here  takes  the  freedom  of  saying,  should  this  labor  of 
his  hands  be  kindly  received  and  honestly  rewarded,  he  has 
some  other  facts  with  respect  to  the  Bee,  the  Bee-house,  &c 
which  shall  be  given  in  a  future  number. 

Author. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  L 

Page. 

Sec.  1. — Disease  of  the  Horse,  &c.            ...  9 

Sec.  2. — Disease  of  the  Cow,  &c.          ...  16 

Sec.  3. — Cure  of  the  Horse  and  Cow.       ...  22 

Sec.  4. — Patent  Slobber  Grass  Drag,  &c.      .        .  26 


CHAPTER  II. 

Sec.  1. — Disease  of  the  Plum  Tree  or  Black  Bunch,  &c.  30 
Sec.  2. — Cure  of  the  Plum  Tree,  (fee.       ...      35 


CHAPTER  III. 

Sec.  1. — Decay  of  the  Peach  Tree,  <fcc.  .        .  40 

Sec.  2. — Remedy,  &c,  Frauds  of  Nursery  Men,  &c.        47 


Note. — Publishers  of  Pajiers,  tfC,  who  may  feel  disposed  to  notice  thess 
<■  Prime  Facts,"  are  respectfully  requested  not  to  make  extracts  from  the 
work  and  thereby  harm  the  sale. 

Proprietor. 


A  FEW  PRIME  FACTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE  HORSE  AND  THE  COW. 

FACT    NUMBER    ONE. 

THE  DISEASE  OF  THE  HORSE.. 

Section  I. 

THE  CAUSE  OF  THE  SLOBBERS. 

It  is  a  fact,  generally  known,  and  known  too  by  dear-bought 
experience,  that,  in  this  country,  and  probably  in  most  others, 
the  horse  kept  in  the  summer  season  on  ordinary  grass  feed, 
contracts  a  disease  called  the  Slobbers,  the  cause  of  which 
has  utterly  baffled  the  enquiry  of  many  a  farmer  and  horse 
grower  for  nearly  the  whole  of  the  last  half  century.  For 
many  years  the  complaint  was  regarded  as  inflicting  noth- 
ing more  than  a  little  inconvenience,  a  disagreeable  drool, 
&c. ;  but  experience  soon  proved  that  it  plants  other  diseases 
which,  like  the  "jaw  bone,"  have  slain  their  thousands. 

The  cause  of  the  Slobbers  has  been  attributed  to  the  Ca- 
nada Thistle  by  one  set  of  farmers ;  to  Dr.  Thompson's 
cure-all,  the  Lobelia,  by  another ;  one  says  it  is  the  after 
growth  of  Clover,  called  Rowen,  or  fall  feed,  and  another 
knows  it  to  be  Spider-icebs  suspended  on  the  grass  feed,  and 

2 


10  FACT  NUMBER  ONE. 

by  the  help  of  the  dew  is  rendered  quite  conspicuous  during 
the  morning  hours  ;  but  more  recently,  it  has  been  said,  the 
Slobbers  are  caused  by  the  Spur  found  on  the  wire  or  wild 
Indian  Grass,  which  is  said  to  be  a  native  of  the  country. 

But  all  these,  and  in  fact  all  else,  if  else  has  even  been 
stated,  were  mere  conjectures,  or  what  the  Yankees  call 
■'  guess-ioork."  Every  thing  known  as  to  the  real  cause  of 
the  complaint,  was  altogether  blind  uncertainty,  up  to  the 
period  of  the  month  of  August,  eighteen  hundred  and 
thirty-eight.  At  that  time  a  farmer  by  the  name  of  John 
Forman,  one  of  the  early  settlers  in  Onondaga  Hollow, 
West  New- York,  had  a  highly  valuable  and  favorite  cow 
come  to  her  milk,  or  rather  was  to  have  come  to  it,  but  when 
delivered  of  her  calf,  she  had  no  milk  whatever,  nor  had  she 
any  udder  to  hold  the  milky  secretions. 

The  wonder  was  great  and  pretty  general ;  and  no  little 
solicitude  was  felt  for  the  animal,  and  the  preservation  of  the 
little  stranger,  who  prompted  by  instinct,  acted  as  one  labor- 
ing under  the  weight  of  Nature's  left-hand  cuff. 

The  farmer  concluded  there  must  be  a  cause  for  a  pheno- 
menon so  singular  and  unexpected,  and  sat  himself  down  to 
investigate  the  matter.  Upon  a  little  enquiry,  he  found  six 
cases  of  a  similar  character  in  his  own  neighborhood,  and 
therefore  concluded  the  occurrence  was  not  so  very  strange 
as  he  at  first  supposed.  However,  he  pursued  the  enquiry 
with  his  own  cow,  and  after  close  examination  found  the 
beast  affected  very  much  as  man  is,  after  being  freely  dosed 
with  mercury. 

He  turned  from  his  cow  to  his  horse,  then  staggering  under 


FACT    NUMBER    ONE.  11 

the  effects  of  the  Slobbe?'s,  and  saw  at  once  the  animal  was 
salivated,  and  that  both  cow  and  horse,  were  diseased  alike, 
though  the  glandular  affection  was  not  so  strongly  apparent 
in  the  former  as  in  the  latter.  Both  however  were  sensibly 
relieved,  temporarily,  by  a  mess  of  wheat  bran,  and  hence 
the  direct  intimation  of  the  propriety  of  a  change  of  feed. 

A  few  experiments  satisfied  the  enquirer,  that  whatever 
the  cause  might  be,  the  disease  was  destruction  to  both  ani- 
mals ;  if  not  directly  so,  as  by  poison,  then  by  the  induction 
of  other  diseases.  By  a  course  of  experiments  made  upon 
the  horse,  it  was  found  the  animal  lost  his  flesh,  his  strength, 
his  spirits,  and  his  ambition ;  dropping  successively  into  the 
Scoioers, — then  the  Yellow  Watei\  and,  lastly,  to  death. 
Yet  in  the  worst  stages  of  the  complaint,  he  could  be  brought 
back  and  built  up  in  a  short  period,  by  a  course  of  dry  feed, 
oats,  shorts,  bran,  &c,  in  the  place  of  pasture  or  grass 
feed. 

The  next  advance  in  the  enquiry  went  to  prove  that  there 
were  kinds  of  grass  feed  or  pasture,  which  did  not  inflict 
the  disease  at  any  time,  and  that  the  commencement  of  the 
complaint,  was  about  the  period  of  the  full  blooming  of  the 
chestnut-tree ;  while  its  end  was,  at  latitude  43  north,  late 
in  October.  Yet  a  few  cases  of  the  disease  were  found  to 
have  been  known  while  feeding  on  dry  hay  in  the  winter 
season,  but  they  were  not  very  violent  nor  of  long  duration. 

Following  the  horse  from  one  day  to  another,  and  from 
one  pasture  to  another,  and  watching  the  effect  of  each  move, 
the  long  sought  cause  was  finally  discovered,  and  it  was  also 
discovered,  at  the  same  time,  to  be  more  abundant  in  certain 


12  FACT    NUMBER    ONE. 

places  than  any  other  kind  of  feed.  The  observer  had  seen 
it  before  some  hundreds  of  times ;  it  had  been  about  him, 
and  about  others  for  many  years,  and  yet  had  not  been  once 
suspected ;  nay,  it  had  long  been  regarded  as  appropriate 
and  wholesome  fodder,  both  for  summer  and  winter 

This  discovery  is  deemed  a  great  public  benefit, — a  na- 
tional blessing ;  and  it  claims  to  merit  the  consideration  and 
gratitude,  not  of  the  farmer  simply,  but  of  every  member  of 
the  household  of  man.  Aside  from  the  misery  which  it  im- 
poses upon  the  poor  horse  and  other  animals,  which  every 
humane  mind  must  feel  and  regret,  the  loss  to  the  owner,  in 
behalf  of  labor  and  property,  and  the  aggregate  loss  to  the 
country,  in  point  of  general  prosperity  and  wealth,  must  be 
immense ;  and  without  the  knowledge  of  this  discovery,  it 
must  have  increased  in  the  ratio  of  the  increase  of  horses, 
<fcc,  and  of  our  population. 

Any  further  detail  with  respect  to  the  manner  in  which 
the  cause  of  the  Slobbers  was  discovered,  or  the  experiments 
made  in  this  behalf,  need  not  now  be  stated ;  though  it  is  but 
just  to  observe  that  the  discovery  has  been  withheld  from 
the  public  up  to  this  period,  for  the  purpose  of  making  what 
appeared  very  sure,  positively  certain,  and  thereby  place  the 
whole  matter  on  tangible  premises  and  above  the  reach  of 
doubt. 

Now,  then, — the  cause  of  the  Horse  Slobber,  is  a 
wild  grass,  a  native  of  our  soil,  and  wonderfully  prolific. 
It  was  first  found  in  and  about  old  Indian  reservations,  and 
it  still  grows  about  those  regions  in  the  greatest  abundance 
and  to  much  the  greatest  perfection.     But  it  is  by  no  means 


FACT    NUMBER    ONE.  13 

confined  to  such  grounds,  nor  indeed  to  any  particular  soil 
or  climate  yet  known.  It  is  found  to  some  extent  in  all 
parts  of  the  country ;  it  grows  on  the  lowest  and  highest 
points  of  land,  and  even  in  the  streets  of  our  great  cities.  It 
is  wonderfully  tenatious  of  life,  and  to  destroy  it  out  of  the 
land,  would  prove  more  difficult  probably  than  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  Canada  Thistle. 

With  respect  to  the  character  of  this  poison  grass,  it  may 
be  well  to  observe  that,  in  point  of  height,  it  has  been  found 
to  vary  from  three  inches,  at  maturity,  to  thirty  inches  ;  and 
where  the  soil  is  very  favorable,  it  sometimes  rises  to  three 
feet.  Where  it  has  free  scope,  it  branches  out  from  the  root 
and  strays  off  in  almost  every  direction,  something  like  the 
garden  pursley,  but  in  every  few  inches,  it  penetrates  the 
earth,  and  throws  its  roots  downward  and  its  stems  upward. 
Hence,  the  main  or  primitive  root,  has  been  known  to  send 
up  from  one  to  three  hundred  stems  or  stalks,  while  the  ava- 
rage  branches  on  a  healthy  stem  ranges  from  ten  to  twelve 
which  form  heads,  and  the  seeds  in  each  head  run  from  four 
to  seven  hundred.  From  these  premises  some  notion  may 
be  formed  of  the  manner  in  which  this  troublesome  grass  is 
propigated. 

The  discoverer  of  the  effects  of  this  grass  upon  the  horse, 
&c,  knowing  no  name  for  the  plant,  took  the  freedom  of 
calling  it  Slobber  Grass  ;  nor  has  this  appellation  been 
found  to  militate  with  any  previous  name ;  for  no  one  seems 
to  have  known  any  term  by  which  it  was  designated.  The 
Indians,  so  far  as  the  Six  Nations  are  concerned,  have  had  no 
name  for  it ;  though  some  of  them  claim  to  have  known  it 


14  PACT    NUMBER    ONE. 

longer  and  better  than  any  body  else.  Mr.  Chilton,  an  emi- 
nent Chemist  and  Botanist  of  the  city  of  New- York,  when 
shown  the  grass,  said  it  was  a  species  of  Dog  Grass ;  but 
of  what  kind  he  was  not  then  able  to  determine.  Chilton's 
remark  is  probably  correct ;  for  observation  proves  that  the 
Dog  does  in  fact  eat  it,  instinctively,  though  very  sparingly, 
and  that  it  acts  on  him  as  a  medicine. 

Professor  Gray  of  Boston,  a  gentleman  who  enjoys  the  re- 
putation of  being  one  of  the  most  accomplished  Botanists  of 
this  or  any  other  country,  said,  when  a  stem  of  this  grass 
was  presented  to  him,  "  the  Botanical  name  of  the  plant  is 
Digitari a  S anguinalis,"  but  he  had  no  common  name  for 
it.  In  the  absence,  however,  of  a  traditionary  cognomen,  we 
venture  to  christian  it  Slobber  Grass,  and  under  that  de- 
nomination, we  represent  it,  at  full  length  and  perfection,  in 
the  opposite  cut,  by  which  we  presume  it  may  be  very  easily 
identified. 

The  name  of  the  grass  is  of  but  little  moment  compared 
with  its  perfect  identity,  and  the  wide  spread  evils  with 
which  it  is  visiting  our  whole  country. 

The  mere  slobbering  or  salivation  of  the  horse,  is,  with 
respect  to  this  noble  animal,  only  the  beginning  of  trouble  ; 
for  when  the  slobbering  is  suffered  to  run  on  for  twelve  or 
fourteen  weeks  in  the  year,  without  a  check,  it  almost  inva- 
riably passes  into  a  disease  commonly  called  the  Scowers, 
or  a  kind  of  Flux,  that  sometimes  proves  fatal.  If  however 
this  complaint  is  survived,  a  vitiated  state  of  the  blood  ensues 
which  generally  brings  on  the  Yellow  Water,  or  a  kind 
of  Dropsy,  which,  in  hard  weather,  almost  always  carries  the 
animal  off. 


FACT    NUMBER    ONE. 


15 


SLOBBER  GRASS  PLANT. 
As  to  the  actual  amount  of  loss  in  the  property  of  the 
horse  either  to  the  farmer  or  the  country,  no  estimate  is  here 
attempted,  simply  because  the  proper  data  are  not  at  hand. 
Could  the  amount,  however,  be  honestly  reached  it  would 
probably  surprise  the  most  incredulous. 

Note There  is  a  harmless  kind  of  wild  grass  which  somewhat  resembles 

the  above ;  its  leaf  however  is  broader  and  perfectly  smooth,  whereas,  the 
Slobber  Grass  leaf  is  stoutly  coated  with  fuze,  not  to  3ay  beardy. 


16 


FACT    NUMBER    ONE. 


THE  COW  TWO  WEEKS  AFTER  EATING  THE  SLOBBER  GRASS, 


FACT    NUMBER   ONE. 

THE  DAIRY  COW. 

Section  II. 
THE  CAUSE  OF  THE  FALLING  OFF  IN  THE  MILK  OF  THE  COW. 

We  have  already  observed  that  the  Slobber  Grass  dis- 
ease, visites  the  Milch  Cow  with  great  severity;  and  we 
now  say,  that,  the  evils  resulting  from  the  disease  of  the 
horse,  in  this  respect,  bear  no  proportion  to  those  arising 
from  the  salivation  of  this  animal  while  in  a  state  either  of 
coming  in,  as  it  is  called,  or  of  giving  milk.  In  the  cow, 
these  evils  have  been  seen  and  felt,  especially  in  the  old 
states,  for  more  than  half  a  century ;  and  they  have  gene- 
rally been  regarded  as  a  matter  of  course, — a  visitation  in- 


FACT    NUMBER    ONE.  17 

separable  from  the  nature  of  things  and  the  relation  of  the 
animal  system  to  the  earth. 

Where  any  doubt  has  existed,  or  where  thought  has  been 
exerted  on  the  subject,  all  has  been  referred  to  some  peculi- 
arity in  the  character  of  our  country, — the  nature  of  our  soil 
or  our  climate, — the  breed  of  our  milch  stock,  or  the  immedi- 
ate effect  of  sin  in  our  world ;  and,  therefore,  in  any  case 
there  could  be  no  remedy  except  patient  endurance  and  be- 
coming submission. 

In  the  end,  however,  observation  first  opened  the  way  to 
enquiry ;  this  led  to  experiment,  and  experiment  soon  tram- 
pled all  vague  suppositions  under  foot,  placing  the  whole  sub- 
ject under  the  easy  and  absolute  control  of  every  man  who 
sees  fit  to  exert  his  senses  or  employ  his  wits. 

Experiments  have  proved,  beyond  all  controversy,  that  the 
Slobber  Grass  acts  upon  the  cow  very  much  as  calomel  ope- 
rates upon  the  human  system,  though  the  slobbering  does 
not  appear  so  abundant  as  in  the  case  of  the  horse.  It  is 
found  to  create  a  fever,  followed  by  a  loss  of  energy;  to  viti- 
ate the  blood;  diminish  the  quantity  and  debase  the  quality 
of  the  milk  ;  run  into  the  butter,  giving  it  the  appearance  and 
even  the  taste  of  hog's  lard;  and  into  the  butter-milk,  giving 
it  a  watery  consitency  and  an  impoverished  taste.  It  is 
also  believed  to  sensibly  impair  the  health  of  those  who,  in 
that  condition  of  the  cow,  use  her  milk  in  any  way,  inducing 
probably  the  disease  called  the  Milk  Sickness. 

At  all  events,  the  disease  soon  runs  the  animal  into  the 
Scowers,  the  same  as  the  horse,  and  then  into  the  Yellow 
Water,  or  the  overflow  of  the  gaul,  which  generally  termi- 

3 


18  FACT    NUMBER    ONE. 

nates  in  death.  But  if  she  chance  to  survive  all  these,  she  is 
soon  taken  with  the  hollow-horn,  or  the  hoof-ail ;  and  should 
she  wade  through  the  whole,  the  inference  is,  she  has  been 
favored  with  mild  weather  and  a  good  nurse. 

Then  another  evil,  consequent  on  this  disease,  is  the  scar- 
city of  milk  and  butter,  and  the  extravagantly  high  price  of 
the  latter,  notwithstanding  its  poverty,  not  to  say  its  poison, 
at  a  season  of  the  year  when  it  should  be  most  abundant 
and  most  perfect  in  quality. 

The  falling  off  in  the  milk,  in  point  of  quantity,  has  been 
known  to  exceed  one  half,  and  the  difference  in  respect  to 
purity  and  richness,  is  probably  still  greater.  In  latitude  4TC 
north,  and  so  on  to  46,  these  deficiencies  have  been  observed 
to  commence,  where  the  Slobber  Grass  flourishes  freely, 
about  the  first,  or  during  the  first  half  of  July  ;  and  although, 
in  ordinary  seasons,  they  may  be  partly  regained,  as  tin's 
grass  dies  away  in  the  frosts  of  the  declining  year,  yet, 
should  the  cow  live  through  the  disease,  the  effect  continues 
to  a  great  extent  until  she  comes  to  a  renewal  of  her  milk. 
Well  tested  experiments  sufficiently  prove  that  a  cow,  coming 
to  her  milk,  where  she  has  had  a  free  use  of  this  grass,  in 
the  month  of  August  or  September — may  not  have  one  gill ; 
though  previously  eminent  for  a  rich  and  large  supply  of 
this  needful  nourishment. 

All  these  afflictions,  and  inflictions,  have  been  charged, 
from  time  immemorable,  to  the  account  of  the  bad  seasons, 
— the  want  of  rain,  or  the  excess  of  rain;  the  dirth  of  feed, 
or  the  poverty  of  feed;  the  influence  of  the  climate,  or  the 
presence  of  the  dog-star;  the  heat  of  the  weather,  the  change 


FACT    NUMBER    ONE.  19 

in  the  moon,  the  place  of  the  planets,  or  something  beyond 
the  knowledge  of  created  intelligence.  But  we  are  now 
prepared,  to  say,  and  to  prove  what  we  say,"  that  the  loss  of 
the  milk  arises  entirely  and  exclusively  from  the  Slobber 
Grass.  Yet  it  is  fair  to  suppose  the  extent  of  the  loss,  as 
well  as  the  degree  of  the  disease,  may  be  found  subject  to 
some  slight  modifications  from  other  causes. 

We  here  beg  leave  to  observe  that  further  and  more  sci- 
entific experiments  in  this  behalf,  are  now  in  progress,  the 
results  of  which  will  be  made  known  in  due  season. 

With  respect  to  the  effects  of  the  grass  on  other  animals, 
it  has  already  been  ascertained  that  it  is  dangerous  to  the 
goose  and  fatal  to  the  gosling.  It  is  the  poison  Pally  Wroc> 
which  has  so  often  swept  off  many  an  entire  brood  of  these 
web-footed  younglings.  This  grass,  to  the  goslings,  is  a 
powerful  physic;  it  soon  turns  the  bill,  the  legs,  and  the  feet, 
a  pale  ash  color,  and  in  a  few  hours,  fairly  scowers  the 
fowl  out  of  the  world.  This  was  the  case  with  some  ten  or 
twelve,  upon  which  experiments  were  made  in  1840.  They 
were  placed  where  this  grass  flourished  richly,  and  shut  out 
the  growth  of  all  other  kinds  of  feed,  and  no  one  of  them 
survived  the  third  day. 

Other  experiments  satisfactorily  proved  that  the  hog, 
probably  the  least  dainty  of  all  the  four-legged  tribe,  shuns 
this  grass  instinctively,  as  if  it  were  really  known  to  be  a 
certain  death-dose.  He  will  famish  with  hunger  rather  than 
taste  either  root  or  branch  of  it ;  though  by  breaking  up  the 
ground,  he  multiplies  the  growth  of  it  at  a  wonderful  rate. 

The  hog  is  also  known  to  avoid  the   Tobacco  plant  very 


20  FACT    NUMBER    ONE. 

much  in  the  same  way ;  may  not  man,  therefore,  an  animal, 
not  quite  so  delicate,  in  this  respect,  as  Master  Grunt,  substi- 
tute this  grass  for  that  weed  and  gain  something  by  the  ex- 
change ?     The  enquiry  is  made  merely  to  elicit  experiment. 

Sheep  are  observed  to  eat  the  Slobber  Grass  freely,  though 
it  is  believed  to  be  injurious  to  their  milk  and  to  the  growth 
of  their  young.  It  has  been  found  by  careful  comparison, 
that  lambs,  where  this  grass  prevails  to  the  exclusion  of 
more  healthy  and  nutritious  feed,  do  not  attain  the  weight 
of  lambs  in  regions  where  the  grass  is  not  known,  by  some- 
thing more  than  thirty  per  cent.  A  course  of  experiments, 
however,  is  now  in  progress  which  will  probably  determine 
with  more  accuracy  the  effects  of  this  grass  upon  sheep  and 
several  other  animals. 

No  attempt  is  here  made  to  exhibit  the  precise  qualities 
or  properties  of  the  Slobber  Grass,  for  the  simple  reason  that 
no  fair  test  of  its  component  parts  has  yet  been  obtained. 
The  plant  has  not  been  honestly  submitted  to  a  chemical 
analysis  ;  the  first  and  great  object  has  been  to  say  to  the 
world  the  cause  of  the  Slobbers  has  been  discovered  and  a 
remedy  found. 

Preparations  however  are  now  in  progress  and  are  nearly 
completed,  for  ascertaining  its  qualities  and  developing  its 
whole  character  by  a  scientific  examination. 

But  without  any  character,  and  even  without  a  name,  it 
has  long  been  a  prevailing  plant  in  this,  and  probably  in 
many  other  countries,  and  has  never  been  regarded  as  any 
thing  more  than  a  harmless  wild  grass — a  coarse  pasture 
feed.     Mixed  with  other  grasses,  it  has  long  been  cut  and 


FACT    NUMBER   ONE.  21 

'cured  as  appropriate  winter  fodder  without  once  exciting 
suspicion  or  waking  enquiry.  The  entire  loss  of  the  milk 
and  the  bag  of  an  elegant  and  valuable  cow,  in  the  midst 
of  summer  and  fine  feed,  first  roused  attention,  and  patient 
investigation  has  fully  proved  all  and  even  more  than  all 
that  we  have  here  stated. 


22  FACT    NUMBER    ONE. 

FACT    NUMBER    ONE, 
Section  III. 

REMEDY  FOR  THE  HORSE  SLOBBERS,  &c. 

It  has  already  been  observed,  that  the  Slobbers  in  the 
horse,  may  be  cured  in  a  few  hours  by  the  use  of  dry  feed, 
and  it  may  now  be  added,  that  wheat  bran  is  believed  to  be 
the  most  immediate  as  well  as  the  most  effectual  temporary 
cure.  In  some  parts  of  the  country,  the  laboring  horse,  to 
avoid  the  effects  of  this  disease,  is  regularly  shut  up  and  fed 
on  various  kinds  of  dry  fodder,  during  the  whole  slobber 
season.  A  somewhat  similar  change  of  feed,  provided  for 
the  cow,  will,  if  seasonably  given,  protect  her  also,  or  par- 
tially restore  her  after  she  has  been  afflicted,  from  the  effects 
of  this  grass.  But  a  more  effectual  remedy  may  be  found 
by  adopting  a  regular  and  systematic  course  of  pasturage, 
something  after  the  following  order  : — 

1st.  The  Slobber  Grass,  like  Indian  Corn,  will  not 
thrive  in  the  shade ;  in  order,  therefore,  to  smother  its  growth, 
keep  the  ground,  when  suitable,  heavily  stocked  with  herds- 
grass,  or  what  is  called  fox-tail,  with  clover,  or  with  some- 
thing that  will  afford  a  thick,  strong  sward.  Then,  to  pre- 
serve this  sward,  and  leave  no  opening  for  the  Slobber  Grass 
to  sprout,  the  hog  should  be  carefully  shut  out  from  the  pas- 
ture ;  for  where  this  animal  breaks  the  ground,  the  poison 
grass  springs  up  with  wonderful  celerity,  scatters  its  seads, 
and  destroys  the  wholesome  feed. 

2d.  The  earliest  spring  feeding,  should  be  taken  from 


FA.CT    NUMBER    ONE.  23 

those  lots  or  portions  of  ground,  destined  to  be  broken  up  for 
the  Summer  Crop,  and  here  the  Hog  may  run  and  root  to 
his  fill,  without  doing  much  mischief  in  the  way  of  proro- 
gating the  Slobber  Grass. 

3d.  The  next  feeding  should  be  taken  from  what  is  in- 
tended to  constitute  the  main  Summer  Pasture,  where  the 
Hog  must  not  be  suffered  to  run  on  any  account  whatever, 
nor  must  the  horse  or  cow  remain  there  for  any  great  length 
of  time ;  because,  the  object  is  merely  to  crop  off  the  first 
growth  a  little,  so  as  to  cause  the  grass  to  spread,  become 
thick,  retard  the  period  of  its  coming  to  maturity,  and  hold 
the  Slobber  Grass  in  check. 

4th.  In  the  third  place,  the  feeding  may  be  taken  from 
what  is  reserved  as  Fallow  Ground,  where  the  Hog  may  also 
run  without  damage.  Here  the  horse  and  the  cow  may  re- 
main until  the  grass  in  the  principal  summer  pasture  shall 
have  attained  a  rich  growth,  in  the  shade  and  unbroken 
sward  of  which,  little  or  no  Slobber  Grass  will  be  found. 
Or  they  may  remain  on  the  fallow  ground  until  the  Chestnut- 
tree  comes  out  in  full  blossom,  at  which  time  the  Slobber 
Grass  will  have  become  dangerous  to  the  horse  and  cow, 
and  they  must  be  provided  for  forthwith  in  the  main  sum- 
mer pasture.  In  this  pasture  they  may  remain  with  perfect 
safety,  until  the  after  growth  of  the  herds-grass  and  red-top 
meadows  are  ready  for  feeding. 

5th.  The  Hog  and  the  sheep  too,  if  need  be,  may  remain  on 
the  fallow  ground  to  advantage  until  seed  time,  when  the 
former  may  go  to  the  apple  or  peach  orchard  to  pick  up  the 
windfalls ;  and  the  sheep  may  go  into  the  principal  summer 


24  FACT    NUMBER    ONE. 

pasture,  to  feed  every  thing  off  close,  and  they  may  remain 
there  until  the  heavy  frosts  check  the  Slobber  Grass  and 
leave  the  wholesome  grass  feed,  young  and  tender,  and  in 
good  order  for  the  Fall  Pasture  of  the  cow.  The  working 
horse,  at  the  same  time,  should  be  housed,  at  least,  during 
the  night,  and  carefully  prepared  for  the  winter  service. 

6th.  It  may  here  be  observed,  that  the  aftergrowth  of 
clover  simjrty,  should  be  carefully  avoided,  because  it  is 
liable  to  be  mixed  up  with  the  Slobber  Grass.  Clear  clover 
does  not  form  a  fairly  combined  sward,  nor  a  perfect  shade, 
and  therefore  the  bad  grass  will  creap  in,  and  taint  the  feed. 
It  has  been  known  to  be  so  heavily  mixed  with  clover 
rowen  as  to  inflict  the  Slobbers  in  the  dead  of  winter. 
S.  Here  we  will  also  remark,  that  herds-grass  is  sometimes 
called  timothy,  as  well  as  fox-tail ;  and  in  some  places  it 
appears  to  be  confounded  with  red-top ;  but  this  latter  is  a 
totally  different  species  of  grass,  it  thrives  best  in  low,  moist 
ground,  where  it  comes  to  maturity  rather  late  in  the  season. 

Now,  the  Slobber  Grass  will  not  thrive  with  heavily  stock- 
ed timothy,  or  red-top ;  nor  will  it  grow  freely  with  clover, 
springing  from  a  thick  herds-grass  sward. 

This  poison  grass,  in  order  to  reach  its  greatest  perfection, 
demands  the  sun-light  in  rich  perfusion,  and  a  rich  cultiva- 
ted soil.  This  fact  gives  the  farmer  a  partial  control  over 
its  effects  upon  his  stock  by  carefully  adopting  and  carrying 
out  the  plan  of  pasturing  which  is  above  described. 

This  plan  has  been  fully  tested  and  successfully  followed 
for  the  last  three  or  four  years,  and  is,  without  doubt,  the 
safest  course  so  long  as  the  poison  grass  is  suffered  to  grow. 


PACT    NUMBER   ONE.  25 

It  is  believed  however,  that  not  only  this  grass,  but  every 
other  noxious  grass  and  weed,  may  be  easily  and  very  advan- 
tageously eradicated  from  the  soil,  and  all  expences  thus  in- 
curred fully  paid  by  the  increase  and  superior  quality  of  the 
productions  of  the  ground  the  first  year.  The  manner  of  ac- 
complishing this  important  object  is  laid  down  in  the  follow- 
ing section. 


26  FACT    NUMBER    ONE. 

FACT    NUMBER    ONE. 

Section  IV. 

DESTRUCTION  OF  THE  SLOBBER  GRASS,  &c. 

By  the  destruction  of  the  Slobber  Grass,  &c,  we  mean 
the  destruction  also  of  the  Canada  Thistle,  the  John  Wort, 
the  Stean  Crout,  Daisey,  Cockle,  Tare,  and  all  other  hurt- 
full  weeds  and  plants,  which  prey  upon  the  farmer's  labor 
and  destroy  his  substance.  When  this  is  once  effected,  and 
experience  proves  it  all  perfectly  feasible,  the  soil  will  be  left 
to  bring  forth,  from  good  seed,  not  only  clean  and  whole- 
some grass  and  grain,  but  the  richest  and  largest  amount  of 
both. 

This  important  object  may  be  attained  by  means  of  a 
simple  machine,  called  the  Slobber  Grass  Drag,  which 
is  of  easy  construction,  and  of  cheap  use  ;  for  it  may  be  drawn 
by  a  single  horse,  and  tended  by  a  boy. 

This  Drag,  a  diagram  of  which  stands  opposite,  has  some- 
thing of  the  form  of  the  old-fashioned  heater ;  it  covers 
more  ground  than  the  ordinary  harrow,  and  is  comparative- 
ly lighter.  Its  length  may  be  rated  at  eight  or  nine  feet  and 
its  greatest  width  at  six  or  seven  feet ;  and  it  may  be  formed 
either  of  iron  and  steel  or  wood  and  steel.  It  is  jointed  near 
the  middle,  for  the  purpose  of  fitting  uneven  or  rough  sur- 
face, and  its  pitch  or  track  is  measured  as  to  depth  by  three 
iron  revolving  wheels  or  pullies. 

This  Drag  is  armed  with  thirteen,  (the  number  may  be 
varied)  spoon-bowl  shaped  shavers  or  knives,  made  of  wel! 


FACT    NUMBER    ONE. 


27 


tempered  steel  and  designed  to  be  kept  sharp.  Each  knife  is 
about  ten  inches  in  length  and  eight  wide  at  the  head,  and  it  is 
made  fast  to  an  iron  shank,  fitted  to  the  timber  or  beam  of  the 
Drag,  and  dropping  about  six  inches  in  the  clear,  by  a  screw 


PATENT  SLOBBER  GRASS  DRAG. 


A.  A.  A.  Iron  wheels.     B.  B.  The  two  joints.     C.  C.  Places  for  handles. 


28  FACT    NUMBER    ONE. 

and  nut,  planted  three  inches  from  the  heel.  These  knives 
enter  the  ground  about  one  inch  and  scrape  over  the  whole 
surface,  cutting  up  the  grass  and  weeds  the  entire  width  of 
the  Drag. 

The  Slobber  Grass  Drag,  is  designed  to  be  employed  on 
the  fallow  ground ;  and  for  the  purpose  of  destroying  that 
grass,  the  thistle,  &c. — this  ground  must  be  broken  up  soon 
after  these  poison  plants  make  their  appearance,  which  in 
40°,  and  upwards  is  about  the  1st  of  May.  This  ploughing, 
if  well  done,  effectually  covers  up  and  desiroys  the  first  or 
spring  growth  of  the  grass,  &c,  and  converts  it  to  compost. 

The  ploughing  should  be  followed,  forthwith,  by  a  har- 
row, for  the  purpose  of  levelling  down  the  inequalities  and 
smoothing  the  surface  for  the  knives  of  the  Slobber  Grass 
Drag.  Then  the  Drag  is  to  follow  the  harrow  immediately 
after  the  offensive  weeds  make  their  appearances  and  while 
they  are  yet  tender  and  most  easily  destroyed. 

Now,  it  must  be  observed,  that  the  ploughing,  in  ordina- 
ry grounds,  should  be  done,  for  several  reasons,  while  the 
earth  is  moist,  but  the  Drag  should  be  used  only  in  dry, 
warm  weather,  that  the  sun  may  wither  up  all  that  the 
knives  shear  off;  and  this  shearing  off  should  be  repeated 
as  often  as  the  young  Slobber  Grass,  thistles,  &c,  start  up 
and  coat  the  ground.  In  the  mean  time,  the  ploughing  and 
harrowing  should  be  repeated  three  times  at  least,  before 
seeding,  and  if  the  fourth  time  is  added,  the  benefit  will  be 
palpable  to  common  observation. 

This  kind  of  dressing,  honestly  and  judiciously  conducted, 
will  secure  the  field  against  all  kinds  of  poison  grass  and 


FACT    NUMBER    ONE.  29 

weeds,  even  if  heavily  charged  with  either  the  grass  or  the 
thistle,  or  with  any  other  poison  vegetable,  for  four  or  five 
years,  and  all  the  increase  of  labor  and  extra  expence,  and 
will  be  more  than  counterbalanced  in  the  quantity  and 
quality  of  the  crop  even  of  the  first  year's  produce. 

When  the  land  thus  dressed,  is  designed  either  for  mow- 
ing or  pasturage,  the  timothy  seed  should  be  scattered  im- 
mediately after  the  last  harrowing ;  for  it  will  then  take 
early  root,  form  an  early  sward,  and  help  to  smother  all  bad 
weeds  ;  forming,  at  the  same  time,  a  protection  to  the  young 
clover  stocking,  sown  in  the  spring  of  the  year,  both  from 
the  sun  and  the  frost. 


30  FACT    NUMBER    TWO. 

CHAPTER  II. 

THE    PLUM    TREE. 

FACT    NUMBER    TWO. 

Section  I. 

FORMATION  OF  THE  BLACK  BUNCH. 

The  Plum  is  a  beautiful  and  delicious  fruit.  Some  kinds 
are  known  to  be  of  very  high  antiquity,  and  have  long  been 
esteemed,  in  all  civilized  countries,  as  a  choice  table  dish,  as 
a  rich  preserve,  and  as  applicable  to  many  other  delicate  pur- 
poses of  food.  Many  kinds  of  plum  trees  grow  richly  in 
nearly  almost  all  parts  of  our  country,  and  great  pains  have 
been  taken  to  bring  the  fruit  to  some  good  degree  of  perfec- 
tion, but  for  the  most  part  the  success  has  been  very  limited. 

For  the  last  forty  or  fifty  years,  the  tree,  in  the  old  settled 
parts  of  the  Union,  especially,  has  encountered  almost  insu- 
perable difficulties,  and  these  have  really  discouraged  thous- 
ands even  from  attempting  to  cultivate  the  fruit.  The  most 
formidable  of  these  evils  is  a  species  of  Black  Rot  which 
invariably  induces  premature  decay.  From  this  cause  the 
fruit  has  not  only  been  poor  in  point  of  quality,  but  the  sup- 
ply has  been  scanty  and  uncertain. 

One  special  design  of  this  little  work,  is  to  trace  out  the 
cause  of  this  Black  Rot,  or  Black  Bunch,  as  it  is  called, — 
the  foundation  of  the  Decay,  and  thus  provide  a  remedy  by 
which  the  rot,  and  the  evils  resulting  from  it,  may  be  avoid- 


FACT    NUMBER    TWO. 


31 


■d,  and  that  too,  without  the  loss  of  the  tree,  or  even  an 
jntire  suspension  of  its  fruit. 


A  BRANCH  OF  THE  DISEASED  PLUM  TREE. 

The  cause  of  the  premature  decay  of  this  tree,  is  an  in- 
sect, called  the  Plum  Tree  Louse  ;  for,:  strange  as  the  fact 
may  appear,  trees  have  Lice  as  well  as  man  and  beast.  This 
insect  makes  its  appearance  about  the  time  the  tree  begins 
to  bloom,  and  it  then  has  the  form  of  a  small,  green  mite. 


32  FACT    NUMBER    TWO. 

lodged,  by  myriads,  on  the  under  side  of  the  leaves  and 
about  the  blossoms.  But  in  due  time,  this  green  mite  be- 
comes a  winged  insect,  and  passes  from  one  branch  of  the 
tree  to  another.  It  visits  the  fruit  after  it  has  become  fairly 
formed :  feeds  on  the  tender  skin,  and  not  only  stints  the 
growth  of  the  plum,  but  mars  its  beauty  and  vitiates  its  quali- 
ty. The  leaves  and  the  fruit  thus  wounded  by  the  louse 
and  the  fly,  or  the  winged  louse,  as  it  is  called,  shrivel  up, 
turn  yellowish,  and  generally  drop  off  at  an  early  period 
of  the  season.     This  is  the  beginning  of  the  evil. 

Now,  it  is  a  well  known  fact,  that  the  leaves  perform  the 
same  office  in  the  vegetable  world,  which  the  lungs  perform 
in  the  animal  world  ;  they  are  the  means  of  sustaining  respi- 
ration,— the  channel  through  which  the  tree  breathes.  If, 
therefore,  these  have  been  wounded,  and  have  dropped  to  the 
ground,  during  the  breathing  or  growing  season,  it  is  evi- 
dent, that  so  far,  at  least,  the  growth  of  the  Spring  Shoot, 
is  actually  stifled. 

What  then  is  the  natural  consequence  ?  Does  the  shoot 
or  tender  sprout  instantly  die  ?  No  ; — but  it  has  a  death 
stab  which  it  will  not  survive.  By  this  stab,  the  sap,  the 
life  of  the  sprout,  becomes  vitiated,  and  that  portion  of  it 
which  should  have  gone  to  feed  the  decayed  leaves  and  fruit, 
not  only  remains  in  the  newly  formed  spring  shoot,  but  falls 
back  to  the  point  where  the  sprig  or  shoot  first  took  its  ver- 
nal start,  and  there  forms  an  irregular  bunch  under  the  bark, 
and  upon  one  side  of  the  shoot.  This  bunch,  though  small 
at  first,  soon  becomes  perceptible ;  it  presents  a  wood-like 
appearance,  yet  without  any  regular  grains  or  lairs,  but 


PACT    NUMBER    TWO.  33 

granulated  and  soft,  or  rather  spongy.  In  the  end,  however, 
as  it  continues  to  accumulate  in  matter  and  increase  in  bulk, 
it  becomes  more  porous,  and  in  the  course  of  two  or  three 
years,  generally  bursts  the  bark,  when  the  vitiated  matter 
runs  out  and  turns  to  a  dingy  black.  This  therefore  is  com- 
monly called  the  Black  Bunch  on  the  Plum  Tree. 

But  should  the  increasing  matter  at  the  diseased  point,  be 
retained  within  the  bark,  it  nevertheless  continues  tocorode, 
and  finally  turns  black,  forming  a  kind  of  punky  substance 
which  in  the  end  destroys  the  limb,  and  in  due  course  of 
time,  the  whole  tree,  branch,  body,  and  root. 

Aside  from  this  insect,  the  plum  tree  has  another  enemy 
to  contend  with,  which,  though  less  formidable,  in  point  of 
numbers,  is  sometimes  quite  as  fatal.  This  is  a  species  of 
Black  Bug,  which  springs  from  a  darkish,  grub-like-worm, 
and  is  somewhere  called  the  Carcula.  It  generally  makes 
its  appearance  about  the  time  the  fruit  is  one  fourth  or  one 
third  formed,  and  though  its  tarry  is  not  very  long,  it  does  a 
good  deal  of  mischief.  It  preys  upon  the  fruit ;  perforates  the 
delicate  pulp  covering,  and  propagates  its  species  by  deposit- 
ing its  eggs  in  the  fleshy  parts  of  the  plum.  The  fruit  thus 
poisoned,  soon  feels  the  wound,  and  begins  to  wilt ;  then 
comes  the  rot,  and  the  promised  bounty  finally  falls  to  the 
ground.  During  the  progress  of  this  untimely  decay,  the  egg 
becomes  a  worm  which  winters  in  and  about  the  root  of  the 
tree,  and  finally  forms  the  following  year's  Black  Bug.  But 
the  ravages  of  this  enemy,  is  not  confined  exclusively  to  the 
fruit  of  the  tree  ;  for,  while  in  the  form  of  a  worm,  he  often 
finds  his  way  into  the  body  or  stem  of  the  tree,  rankling  at 

5 


34  FACT    NUMBER    TWO. 

the  veiy  heart  some  two  or  three  feet  above  the  root.  In 
this  operation,  he  not  only  breaks  the  bark  and  lets  out  the 
gam,  forming,  of  the  life  of  the  tree,  fit  habitations  for  vari- 
ous other  irritating  and  cankering  insects,  but  leaves  the 
road  open  for  the  approach  of  the  auger-worm,  whose  tooth, 
like  the  waste  of  time,  soon  or  late,  perfects  a  total  ruin  of  the 
tree. 

Two  or  three  modes  of  avoiding  the  evils  inflicted  by  this 
insect,  both  in  its  worm  and  bug  form,  and  even  before  it 
has  assumed  either  form,  will  be  given  in  the  third  chapter 
while  providing  for  the  preservation  of  the  Peach  Tree. 


FACT    NUMBER    TWO.  35 

THE    PLUM    TREE, 

Section  II, 
THE  REMEDY  FOR  THE  PLUM  TREE. 

Experience  has  shown  that,  where  there  are  no  plum 
trees,  there  are  no  plum  tree  insects ;  therefore,  to  effect  a 
radical  cure  of  the  Black  Bunch,  the  present  stock  of  plum 
trees,  now  rendered  almost  valueless,  should  be  taken,  by 
common  consent  and  simultaneous  action,  and  cast  into  the 
fire,  root  and  branch. 

The  surviving  insects,  if  any,  will  perish  in  the  course  of 
a  year  or  two  ;  hence,  eighteen  months  after  the  destruction,  a 
new  stock  may  be  planted  from  choice  seed,  which  will  not 
be  troubled  with  lice  until  the  country  shall  be  again  infect- 
ed with  them  through  the  importation  of  trees  from  the 
old  world.  The  whole  process  may  occupy  some  six  or 
seven  years ;  and  the  new  stock  of  trees  may  thrive  and 
bear  fruit  for  half  a  century ;  for  we  have  now  many  aged 
persons  among  us  who  remember  when  the  lice,  the  Black 
Bunch,  and  the  premature  decay  of  the  plum  tree,  were 
things  altogether  unknown,  and  such  may  again  be  the 
case  if  all  the  people,  as  one  man,  shall  see  fit  to  will  it. 
Actual  experiments  abundantly  prove  that  the  plum  tree  can- 
not be  raised,  even  from  the  seed,  in  the  immediate  vicinity 
of  old  diseased  trees,  without  subjecting  it  to  the  visitation 
of  this  Black  Bunch  at  a  very  early  age. 

Now,  as  this  mode  of  destroying  the  Black  Bunch,  may 


36 


FACT    NUMBER    TWO. 


not  be  deemed  strictly  feasible,  inasmuch  as  the  will  of  all 
may  not  be  readily  obtained,  it  may  be  proper  therefore  that 
each  man  should  have  his  own  remedy. 


^*0Mk 

PLUM  TREE  WITH  BREATHERS. 


FACT    NUMBER    TWO,  37 

From  long  and  patiently  tested  experiments,  it  has  been 
found  that  the  plum  tree,  infected  with  the  Black  Bunch, 
which  is  nothing  more  nor  less  than  the  Plum  Tree  Scrofu- 
la, will  again  thrive  and  bear  fruit,  if  not  too  far  gone  to 
throw  shoots,  after  the  diseased  branches  have  been  trimmed 
off ;  provided  there  are  six  or  eight  healthy  branches  left  for 
the  purpose  of  furnishing  leaves  or  lungs  through  which 
the  tree  may  breathe.  And  while  these  branches  sustain  the 
tree,  they  will  also  use  up  the  sap  from  the  roots,  and  supply 
a  goodly  share  of  fair  and  wholesome  fruit. 

This  trimming  should  be  performed  in  the  dead  of  win- 
ter, for  then  the  sap  is  at  the  root,  and  the  branches  should 
be  sawed  off  some  two  or  three  feet  from  the  body  of  the 
trunk,  or  main  stem,  thereby  leaving  full  room  for  fresh 
shoots  to  branch  out  which  are  to  be  the  future  bearing 
plum  tree. 

The  limbs  thus  lopped  off,  with  all  the  trees  past  bearing, 
and  all  the  sprouts  or  suckers,  which  should  be  taken  up, 
root  and  branch,  should  be  forthwith  burned  up ;  and  no 
useless  appendage  of  a  plum  tree,  capable  of  harboring  in- 
sects should  be  left  on  the  premises. 

In  the  next  place,  the  six  or  eight  healthy  branches,  left 
for  breathers,  should  be  carefully  examined  and  guarded  for 
two  distinct  purposes  : — The  first  of  which  is,  to  protect  them 
against  the  ravages  of  the  lice  ;  and  for  this  protection,  the 
lopping  off  of  all  the  other  branches  from  the  tree  affords 
ample  elbow  room.  Should  lice  make  their  appearance  on 
these  branches,  they  must  be  destroyed  by  water  and  dry 
lime,  or  house  ashes. 


38  FACT    NUMBER    TWO. 

The  water  is  first  thrown  upon  the  under  side  of  the  leaf 
by  means  of  a  syringe  or  other  instrument,  and  the  lime, 
dust  or  ashes  must  be  faithfully  sprinkled  on  immediately 
after,  and  either  will  destroy  the  lice  and  check  the  ravages 
of  the  insect  on  the  leaf.  This  washing  and  dusting  must  be 
repeated  two  or  three  times  during  the  early  part  of  the  - 
season.  The  new  shoots  will  have  fruit,  fair  and  abundant, 
on  the  second  or  third  year.  Should  it  turn  out  that  some 
or  all  of  the  six  or  eight  healthy  branches,  reserved  as  breath- 
ers, are  really  sickly,  they  must  be  lopped  elf  also  and  burn- 
ed up  while  the  sap  is  at  the  root  of  the  tree :  otherwise  de- 
cay soon  follows. 

The  other  object  for  which  the  breathing  branches  should 
be  carefully  watched,  is,  to  save  them  from  being  broken 
down  by  the  increased  growth  of  the  shoots,  and  the  exces- 
sive weight  of  the  fruit,  acted  upon  by  the  wind  or  the  rain. 
This  is  done  by  furnishing  props  on  which  the  branches 
may  rest  until  the  fruit  matures. 

It  may  also  be  proper  to  observe  here  that  the  tree  fur- 
nishing the  egg  plum,  bears  up  against  the  ravages  of  these 
insects  much  longer  than  any  other  kind  of  plum  tree.  The 
reason  probably  is,  the  leaves  of  this  tree  are  much  larger 
and  thicker  than  the  leaves  of  other  plum  trees,  they  arc 
therefore  not  marred  so  much  but  that  they  remain  on  the 
tree  and  act  as  breathers  through  the  bearing  season. 

The  Marilla  cherry  tree  is  also  visited  by  insects  which 
produce  the  Black  Bunch  similar  to  that  on  the  plum  tree, 
and  it  may  be  cured  in  the  same  way  if  taken  in  proper 
season. 


FACT    NUMBER    TWO.  o9 

A  like  course  may  also  be  pursued  with  the  pear  or  the 
apple  tree,  when  either,  by  continued  bearing,  has  destroyed 
its:  energies,  and  rendered  its  fruit  valueless.  The  breathers 
left  to  support  the  tree,  will  yield  fine  fruit  the  first  season, 
and  the  new  shoots  the  second  or  third  season,  and  all  of 
prime  size  and  rich  flavor  like  the  fruit  of  a  young  tree. 


40  FACT    NUMBER    THREE. 

CHAPTER  III. 

THE    PEACH    TREE. 

FACT    NUMBER    THREE. 

Section  I. 
DISEASES  OF  THE  PEACH  TREE. 

If  the  Plum,  the  fruit  of  the  tree  just  under  consideration, 
is  a  rich  and  dainty  morsal,  the  Peach,  the  produce  of  the 
tree  of  which  we  now  intend  to  speak,  is  altogether  more  so. 
It  is  much  larger, — much  richer, — more  healthful,  and  more 
universally  esteemed.  As  a  table  dish,  it  ranks  foremost, 
and  as  a  preserve,  it  is  said  to  be  more  delicate  and  nutritious 
than  the  quince. 

The  tree  however  which  furnishes  this  delicious  fruit,  has, 
in  these  latter  days,  become  extremely  frail  and  strangely 
perishing ;  and  its  fruit  also  has  grown  impoverished  in  point 
of  quality,  and  greatly  narrowed  down  as  to  quantity ; — the 
stock  has  fallen  off,  within  the  last  forty  years,  probably 
more  than  fifty  per  cent. 

Great  labor  has  been  given  and  expense  incurred  to  get  at. 
the  cause  of  the  evils  which  light  on  the  Peach  Tree  and  its 
fruit,  and  to  bring  both  back  to  their  pristine  beauty  and 
perfection,  but  all  labor,  all  enquiry,  seems  to  have  proved 
utterly  abortive,  until  efforts  in  that  behalf  have  generally 
been  abandoned  as  altogether  hopeless. 


FACT    NUMBER    THREE.  41 

In  one  quarter,  however,  enquiry  was  not  dropped,  nor 
was  labor  given  over.  This  point  was  in  the  Sunny  Hollow 
of  Onondaga,  near  the  confines  of  the  old  Indian  reserva- 
tion. Here,  after  a  series  of  patient  and  close  observations, 
and  carefully  conducted  practical  experiments,  extending 
through  a  period  of  more  than  thirty  years,  it  was  finally 
discovered  that  the  Peach  Tree  may  be  easily  and  safely 
reared,  and  made  to  yield  prime  fruit  for  forty  or  fifty  years, 
and  probably  a  hundred,  as  well  as  for  four  or  five  ;  and  that 
too,  at  less  expense  of  ground,  as  well  as  time  and  labor, 
than  is  consumed  by  the  mode  of  culture  now  generally 
adopted. 

It  has  been  satisfactorily  proved  that  the  premature  decay 
of  the  Peach  Tree,  springs  from  one  or  more  of  the  three 
following  causes,  viz. :  « 

1st.  The  want  of  a  proper  choice  of  ground  for  the 
Seedling  Plant.  If  the  seed  be  planted  in  damp,  cold 
ground,  or  in  soil  covered  with  sand,  resting  immediately  on 
a  compact,  clayey  sub-stratum,  the  seed  may  indeed  spring  up 
and  grow,  but  the  plant  will  be  unhealthy  ;— the  root  will 
soon  take  the  Consumption,  and  then  transplant  the  sickly 
thing  to  any  kind  of  soil,  and  look  for  thrift,  and  behold 
nothing  but  disappointment  will  come.  When  the  canker 
has  once  taken  hold  of  the  young  stock,  no  sunny  nook  of 
earth;  no  kindly  kindling  soil,  can  ever  afterward  remove  the 
disease,  or  renovate  the  tree.  Close  inspection  will  show 
that  the  heart  has  grown  black  and  is  virtually  dead;  and 
although  the  sap  may  circulate  for  a  while,  its  energies  are 
wholly  lost  in  throwing  out  a  mass  oNiWfe  needle  shoots, 

6 


42 


FACT  NUMBER  THREE. 


which  not  only  yield  no  fruit,  but  probably  never  show  a 
blossom.     So  much'  for  the  growth  of  the  Seedling  Plant 

2nd.   The  present  improper  mode  of  culture.     That 
say  : — the  tree  is  trained  to  grow,  like  the  apple  tree,  and 


THE  DISEASED  PEACH  TREE. 


FACT    NUMBER    THREE.  43 

some  other  kinds  of  fruit  trees,  in  one  body  or  stern,  to  the 
height  of  several  feet.  The  growth  of  this  stem  is  general- 
ly  very  rapid,  consequent^',  the  texture  of  the  timber  is 
coarse  and  poor,  or  what  is  called  brash ;  hence  easily  bro- 
ken by  a  little  access  of  fruit,  or  a  fall  of  damp  snow,  el- 
even a  brisk  wind. 

The  quick  growth  of  this  tree,  resulting  from  the  concen- 
tration of  a  large  supply  of  sap  from  the  roots,  especially 
where  the  soil  is  rich  and  genial,  generally  causes  the  smooth 
and  delicate  exterior  covering  of  the  bark  to  burst  and  form 
cavities  and  ridges  in  the  rind,  leaving  the  inner  bark,  or 
wood  coating,  to  perish  in  the  atmosphere,  at  once  opening 
the  way  for  the  fatal  anger  worm,  whose  tooth  carries  him 
to  the  very  heart  of  the  tree. 

The  inequalities  in  the  bark,  especially  where  they  have 
an  inclining,  or  horizontal  position,  catch  and  retain  the  wet 
and  sleet  of  the  winter  storms,  which,  being  immediately 
followed  by  severe  frost,  are  soon  frozen  up  and  thereby  de- 
stroy the  bark,  leaving  the  tree  exposed,  not  only  to  the  loss 
of  its  gum,  which  is  its  very  life,  but  to  the  free  action  of 
the  wire  and  the  post  worm  ;  either  of  which  inflicts  a  death- 
blow to  the  tree,  even  while  the  roots  are  yet  green  and 
healthy — and  able  to  send  forth  fresh  and  fair  shoots  and 
new  hopes. 

:  From  this  one-stem  mode  of  cultivation,  there  is  also  a 
special  evil  resulting  also  to  the  fruit  of  this  tree.  It 
is  this : — the  superabundant  mass  of  sap,  passing  up  the 
single  stem,  proceeds,  when  the  other  parts  of  the  tree  cease 
to  take  it  up,  directly  to  the  Blow  Bud,  as  it  is  called,  and, 


44  FACT  NUMBER  THREE. 

in  the  mild  weather  of  Autumn,  more  especially  where  the 
the  tree  is  protected  from  the  cool  winds,  swells  it  to  tactual 
bursting-  and  frequently  to  full  bloom. 

This  enlarged  bud,  being  subsequently  exposed  to  the 
rains  and  frosts  of  the  season,  which  frequently  succeed  each 
other  in  almost  the  same  hour,  is  frozen  up,  and  the  germ  of 
the  future  fruit  perishes  in  the  icy  embrace.  This  dead 
germ,  turns  black  immediately,  and  thereby  proclaims  to 
every  close  observer,  and  almost  upon  the  very  heel  of  the 
first  exposure,  the  extent  of  the  ravages  committed  in  this  be- 
half on  the  next  year's  supply  of  the  peach  crop. 

3d.  The  Peach  Tree  Insect.  This  is  a  species  of  Worm, 
which  somewhat  resembles  a  small,  White  Grub.  It  is 
probably  known  among  fruit  growers  generally  as  the  Peach 
Tree  Worm,  for  it  has  long  been  felt  through  all  the  old 
States  of  the  Union,  as  a  deadly  despoiler  of  the  fair  pro- 
mise of  the  peach  orchard. 

Close  observation  has  discovered  that  this  worm  comes 
from  an  Egg  deposited  both  at  the  root  of  the  tree  and  in  the 
fruit  of  the  tree,  during  the  Summer  season  ;  not  by  a  fly,  as 
was  long  supposed,  nor  by  a  large,  glossy,  black  and  titter- 
ing Wasp,  as  many  have  imagined,  but  from  a  longish,  black 
Bug,  the  last  change  which  the  little  White  Grab, — the 
Peach  Tree  Worm,— undergoes,  and  in  which  stage,  it  is 
evidently  well  prepared  to  do  its  mischief  and  propagate  its 
species. 

In  the  grub  form,  however,  it  is  as  far  from  being  harm- 
less as  it  is  from  being  idle.  It  has  been  caught  a  thousand 
times,   girdling  the   tender  seedling  stock,  and  rioting  in 


FACT    NUMBER    THREE.  45 

die  alburnum,  or  sap,  as  early  as  the  first  Autumn  after  the 
seed  has  sprouted.  It  also  feeds  on  the  roots  of  the  young 
tree,  saps  their  energies,  imparts  to  the  leaf  a  decaying  cast, 
called  the  Yellows,  and  often  destroys  the  hope  of  life  be- 
fore the  seedling  has  attained  a  single  year's  growth. 

Observation  proves  that  this  worm  winters  in  the  tree 
near  the  root,  and  that  in  the  Spring,  it  forsakes  its  burrow 
in  the  form  of  the  aforementioned  Bug,  and  is  prepared  to 
traverse  both  the  earth  and  the  air.  In  this  form,  it  reaches 
the  fruit  of  the  tree,  where  it  not  only  perforates  the  tender 
skin, — stinting  the  growth  and  marring  the  beauty  of  the 
peach,  and  often  causing  it  to  die  and  drop  to  the  ground,  but 
there  deposites  an  egg,  which  in  time  becomes  a  grub,  and 
the  grub  again  becomes  a  bug,  and  so  the  plague  is  perpetu- 
ated as  a  primeval  cause.  After  the  dead  peach  has  lain  on 
the  ground  a  short  period,  the  white  grub  has  been  found 
full  of  life  and  with  instinct  sufficient  to  leave  its  decaying 
habitation,  and  make  its  way  through  the  grass,  &c,  to  the 
root  of  the  tree  from  which  the  fruit  fell,  with  the  view  no 
doubt  of  finding  safe  winter  quarters.  Here,  burrowed  with 
the  little  wire  worm,  a  native  of  the  soil,  in  the  gum  which 
has  oozed  from  the  tree,  it  passes  the  cold  season,  chafing 
and  irritating  the  tree,  as  best  the  torpid  state  will  admit, 
until  the  whole  plant  perishes  both  root  and  branch. 

The  bug,  too,  after  having  stung  the  fruit  and  destroyed 
its  life,  has  been  found  to  go  back  to  the  root  of  the  tree  also, 
where  it  deposites  other  eggs,  which  subsequently  multiply 
the  army  of  worms  and  bugs,  which  in  their  turn  make  war 
upon  this  frail  tree  and  its  fruit  if  they  have  any  thing  left  to 


46  FACT    NUMBER    THREE, 

war  upon,  and  rendering  the  existence  of  the  one  extremely 
precarious, — and  the  flavor  of  the  other  poor  and  nearly 
tasteless. 

In  view  of  all  the  evils  which  are  found  to  beset  this  beau- 
tiful fruit  tree  and  its  productions,  it  can  hardly  be  a  matter 
of  surprise  that  the  peaches  of  our  country  are  so  meager  and 
scanty.  In  fact,  the  wonder  might  more  justly  arise,  that  we 
have  either  peaches  or  peach  trees  in  the  land.  And  this 
wonder  might  well  be  increased  when  another  and  a  still 
more  dangerous  evil  to  the  fruit  of  the  tree,  is  taken  into  the 
account ;  I  here  mean  the  Rose  Bug,  which,  in  truth,  seems 
to  threaten  the  annihilation  of  almost  every  kind  of  fruit.  But 
this  evil  is  of  very  recent  appearance  and  not  as  yet  of  uni- 
versal spread.  So  far,  it  has  been  felt  principally  along  the 
sea  board,  reaching  annually,  however,  further  and  further 
into  the  interior,  and  apparently  forbidding  the  hope  of  ever 
again  enjoying  a  full  supply  of  rich  and  wholesome  peaches 
or  of  any  other  species  of  fruit. 

We  venture  to  add  however,  that,  formidable  as  these  evils 
appear,  each  and  all  that  beset  the  Peach  Tree,  except  the 
visit  of  an  untimely  frost,  (which  is  not  here  counted  among 
the  ordinary  Peach  Tree  enemy,)  may  be  effectually  over- 
come. Indeed,  they  have  been  overcome  !  and  rich,  and  rare 
peaches,  have  been  taken  this  season,  (1842)  in  latitude  43 
and  odd,  from  trees  which  have  borne  steadily  for  nearly 
forty  years.  We  will  explain  the  whys  and  wherefores  in 
a  very  few  words,  and  point  out  the  ways  and  means  by 
which  every  man  may  preserve  his  Peach  Trees  and  enjoy 
their  fruit  through  a  long  life. " 


FACT    NUMBER    THREE.  47 

THE    PEACH    TREE. 

Section  II. 
REMEDIES  FOR  THE  PEACH  TREE,  &c. 

The  remedies  for  the  diseases  of  the  Peach  Tree,  and 
tiie  evils  which  generally  befall  its  fruit,  here  submitted  to 
the  public,  may  not  all,  indeed,  prove  the  very  best  under  the 
sun,  nor  may  they  all  prove  to  have  attained  their  highest 
degree  of  perfection,  or  the  most  advantageous  mode  of  ap- 
plication. Yet  we  are  free  to  say  they  are  the  best  and  most 
perfect,  in  all  respects,  which  patient  observation  and  long 
experience,  have  yet  been  able  to  suggest. 

It  may  well  be  expected,  nay,  it  is  confidently  hoped,  that 
future  experiments,  (and  here  we  take  the  freedom,  of  saying 
they  are  daily  and  even  hourly  progressing,)  may  yet  point 
out  important  improvements,  in  some  of  them  at  least,  and 
in  the  mode  of  applying  them,  and  in  the  end,  open  the  way 
to  a  more  extended  and  more  accurate  knowledge  of  the 
culture  not  only  of  this  tree,  but  of  our  whole  stock  of  fruit 
trees. 

In  almost  every  department  of  agriculture,  our  whole 
country  is  in  a  state  of  comparative  infancy  ;  and  it  must 
remain  so  .to  a  great  extent,  until  we  become  content  to  cul- 
tivate less  space,  and  to  exert  in  the  premises  more  practical 
science  and  experimental  knowledge. 

In  this  respect,  something  of  the  proper  principle  begins 
to  appear  about  our  large  towns  and  cities,  where,  as  the 


48  FACT    NUMBER    THREE. 

ground  becomes  valuable,  it  is  generally  made  to  yield  a 
pretty  good  share  of  its  full  strength, — its  exhaustless  riches. 

With  the  true  principle  of  agriculture,  however,  we  also 
need,  above  all  things,  the  adoption  of  another  principle,  still 
more  important,  more  vital,  both  to  individual  and  national 
prosperity, — to  true  greatness  and  true  happiness.  We  here 
mean  the  principle  of  common  honesty  ! — of  fair,  open- 
handed,  every  day  dealing,  as  between  man  and  man,  and 
between  man  and  his  final  accountability.  The  beauty  of  this 
essential  principle  of  life,  we  are  pained  to  say,  has  been  most 
fearfully  marred  of  late  years  by  the  poor,  debasing  spirit  of 
speculation— the  wild,  bewitching  wish  for  instant  wealth, 
— the  reckless  rush  to  excessive  fortune — the  cankering  lust 
of  gold  !  This  spirit  is  daily  seen  and  felt,  here  at  home,  by 
every  one  who,  with  half  an  eye,  measures  life  and  the 
things  of  life  by  the  honest  standard  of  time's  allotments, 
while  abroad,  it  is  seen  and  felt,  and  held  as  our  most  innate 
and  closely  besetting  sin, — our  broadest  national  blot.  In  the 
presence  of  this  spirit,  the  ties  of  nature,  the  pride  of  country, 
the  hope  of  heaven,  all  fade  away,  and  even  love  and  law 
lose  all  their  force.  The  fatal  example,  once  put  forth  by  a 
bold  spirit,  high  in  power,  setting  plighted  faith  and  sacred 
rule  at  noon-day  defiance,  and  daring  all  consequences,  has 
worked  a  lamentable  waste  in  fhe  world  of  moral  obligation, 
and  by  the  mass  it  is  now  claimed  as  a  letter  patent  under 
the  seal  of  a  demi-god,  for  the  commission  of  any  crime, — 
the  infliction  of  any  wrong,— the  utter  disregard  of  all  pub- 
lic and  all  private  faith. 

Who,  at  this  day,  abides  his  word  or  his  bond  as  in  days 


FACT    NUMBER    THREE.  49 

past?  Who  honors  moral  worth  or  commercial  integrity  as 
both  were  once  honored  ?  Where  is  the  sanctity  of  a  prom- 
ise, the  steadfast  confiding,  the  holy  keeping,  which  were 
once  our  honest  boast,— onr  glory  at  home  and  our  passport 
abroad  ?  Into  what  profession,  avocation,  or  calling,  has  not 
bold,  open-day  cheat,  blink-eyed  duplicity,  and  unblushing 
fraud,  dexterously  crept,  as  if  they  were  all  so  many  white 
winged  angels  nestling  in  the  bosom  of  Eve-like  innocence ! 
Even  in  the  cultivation  and  sale  of  the  humble  plant  whose 
name  adorns  the  heading  of  this  chapter, — the  generous 
fruit-giving  Peach  Tree,  the  most  villainous  deceptions  and 
coolly  contrived  frauds,  have  just  been  detected,  and  in  vari- 
ous quarters  they  now  exhibit  strong  proofs  of  extensive 
prevalence  and  long  standing.  Our  nurserymen,  from  the 
mass  of  whom  however,  we  are  happy  in  being  able  to  make 
some  worthy  exceptions,  have  taken  the  responsibility  of 
carrying  on,  and  carrying  out  a  series  of  preconcerted  knave- 
ries which  merit  the  severest  reprehension, — the  rod  of  just 
retribution.  But  as  this  subject  will  be  briefly  stated  in 
another  place,  we  now  waive  further  comment,  and  proceed 
forthwith  to  the  consideration  of  the  cure  of  the  Peach  Tree 
and  the  preservation  of  its  fruit.     And 

1st.  The  choice  of  ground,  &c.  In  the  planting  out  of 
the  nursery  seed  or  peach-pitt,  as  it  is  called,  care  should  be 
taken  that  the  seeds  are  strewed  along  in  the  drill  or  furrow 
about  four  inches  apart.  This  distance  affords  fair  room  to 
dress  out  the  plant,  and  it  particularly  favors  an  early  inocu- 
lation, say  the  first  Summer  after  planting  the  seed  ;  this  too, 
by  consequence,  will  greatly  favor  an  early  transplanting  to 

7 


50  FACT    NUMBER    THREE. 

the  orchard  plat,  especially  if  the  enoculation  be  made  close 
to  the  ground,  which  should  always  be  the  case  with  a 
healthy  seedling  plant. 

Then  the  Peach  Tree  seed  demands,  invariably,  a  dry, 
warm,  and  strong  soil,  free  of  stones,  loeeds,  and  grass, 
and  smally  declining  in  some  direction,  so  as  to  avoid  stand- 
ing pools  of  water.  From  this  ground,  which  should  be  lo- 
cated quite  remote  from  all  old  and  sickly  peach  trees,  the 
weeds.  &e.  should  be  carefully  dressed  out  two  or  three 
times  during  each  season,  and  all  cob-web  nests,  and  the 
homes  of  insects,  should  be  thoroughly  brushed  away.  Any 
other  course  than  this,  may  possibly  save  labor,  but  it  inevi- 
tably leaves  the  infant  tree  exposed  to  incurable  disease  and 
early  decay. 

In  the  next  place,  in  order  to  preserve  the  nursery  plant 
from  the  visitation  of  the  white  grub-like  worm  and  all  other 
unfriendly  insects,  the  earth  immediately  about  the  root  of 
each  plant,  must  be  effectually  drenched  with  stale  chamber 
lye,  and  this  must  be  followed  up  faithfully  during  the 
months  of  August.  September  and  October  of  each  year  of 
the  seedling's  nursery  growth.  The  free  application  of  this 
lye  to  the  ground  about  the  plant,  has  been  found  effectual 
in  keeping  every  kind  of  noxious  insect  out  of  the  way,  and 
preserving  the  plant  not  only  in  a  healthy  state,  but  in  a  fair 
and  thrifty  condition  for  the  orchard. 

It  will  probably  be  said  that  this  mode  of  preserving  the 
seedling  plant  against  the  inroads  of  the  worm,  &c,  imposes  a 
great  deal  of  labor.  The  objection  has  some  weight ;  but  it 
is  all  much  more  than  counterbalanced  by  the  consideration 


FACT    NUMBER    THREE.  51 

that  no  part  is  lost ; — by  the  consideration  that  one  seedling 
plant  thus  watched  and  reared  for  the  orchard,  is  worth 
more  money  to  any  man  who  wants  good  fruit,  than  a  whole 
wagon  load  of  diseased  roots,  dug  up  from  among  wild 
hedges  and  wet  waste  lands,  grafted  and  planted  in  mellow 
nursery  ground,  to  cheat  the  honest,  confiding  purchaser, 
first,  out  of  his  money ;  next,  out  of  his  labor,  and  lastly,  out 
of  all  hope  of  raising  fruit. 

But  let  it  be  remembered  that  the  labor  bestowed  on  the 
nursery  plant,  large  as  it  may  appear,  is  all  irrecoverably 
lost,  unless  proper  ground  be  selected  for  planting  out  the 
Peach  Orchard.  This  fact  has  been  long  since  abundantly 
proved  by  the  utter  failure  of  thousands  who  have  attempted 
to  rear  this  fruit,  even  from  the  best  of  seedling  stock,  planted 
in  unfriendly  soil.  Well  tested  experiments  effectually  show 
that  dry,  elevated,  and  rolling  ground,  is  not  only  the  most 
inviting,  but  the  most  safe  and  the  most  certain.  And  should 
the  surface  chance  to  be  quite  broken  and  quite  rocky,  these 
form  no  serious  objections. 

Much  of  the  success  in  the  cultivation  of  this  fruit,  is  ge- 
nerally supposed  to  depend  upon  the  direction  of  the  descent 
of  the  ground  of  the  Peach  Orchard  ;  but  the  point  of  declina- 
tion, is  not  in  fact  of  any  great  moment.  Experience  proves 
that  the  north  and  west  pitch,  will,  in  ordinary  seasons,  pro- 
duce the  greatest  amount  of  fruit ;  while  the  southern  and 
eastern  pitch,  bring  the  earliest  and  richest  flavored  fruit. 
Deep  valley  grounds  should  be  avoided  by  every  possible 
means  as  damp  and  unhealthy,  but  elevated  sites  may  range 
from  fifty  to  two  hundred  and  fifty  feet  above  the  fair  level 


52  FACT    NUMBER    THREE. 

of  the  surrounding  country,  and  do  well  in  almost  any  cli- 
mate, provided  the  soil  be  dry,  warm,  and  quick. 

2nd.  The  training  of  the  Peach  Tree  in  a  single  stemr 
&c.  The  evils  arising  from  this  mode  of  culture,  may  be 
all  easily  and  effectually  remedied  by  substituting  the  follow- 
ing course  of  cultivation,  viz. 

1.  In  planting  the  young  trees  in  the  orchard,  say  about 
one  year  after  the  ingraft,  care  must  be  taken,  in  the  first 
place,  to  set  them  some  ten  or  twelve  feet  apart;  this 
distance  will  admit  a  free  team  passage  about  the  orchard. 
Then,  in  the  next  place,  further  care  must  be  taken  to  plant 
the  roots  of  each  seedling  full  eight  inches  lower  in  the 
earth  than  the  depth  at  which  it  stood  in  the  nursery.  This 
distance  down  places  the  roots  quite  out  of  the  reach  of  the 
bug  and  the  worm,  and  gives  them  a  fair  hold  upon  the 
earth  and  the  nutriment  which  it  furnishes.  Then,  if  it 
should  so  happen  that  the  worm  or  other  insect,  bark  the 
tree  and  bore  it,  and  even  kill  it  at  the  ground,  new  shoots 
will  immediately  spring  up  from  the  safely  bedded  root, 
strong  and  full  of  health,  and  thus  keep  the  orchard  stock 
in  good  condition. 

2.  In  the  spring,  next  following  the  planting  of  the  orch- 
ard, each  tree  must  be  cut  off  at  the  ground.  Then,  from 
the  root  or  stump  thus  left  in  the  earth,  fresh  sprouts  will 
soon  shoot  up,  as  in  the  subjoined  cut,  and  these  are  to  form 
the  future  peach  tree. 

The  thrifty  stems  severed  from  the  stump,  may,  if  taken 
off  at  the  swell  of  the  leaf  bud,  be  separated  into  slips  of 
about  ten  or  twelve  inches  in  length,  and  planted  some  eight 


PACT    NUMBER    THREE. 


53 


or  ten  inches  deep  in  the  earth,  leaving  simply  a  fair  sprouting 
space  above  the  surface.  These  slips,  if  the  ground  be  rich, 
fine,  compact,  and  kindly  disposed,  will  also  sprout  and  grow' 
forming  roots  downward,  and  shoots  upward,  and  this  too,' 
as  experience  teaches,  in  six  or  eight  cases,  as  an  average,  in 
every  ten. 


THE  RENOVATED  PEACH  TREE. 


f)i  FACT  NUMBER  THREE. 

The  same  course  has  been  pursued  with  strongly  thriving 
branches,  or  suckers,  taken  from  any  healthy  peach  tree, 
and  fine  fruit  has  been  thus  propagated  at  a  very  rapid  rate, 
and  small  expense.  But  let  it  be  observed,  that,  in  all  cases 
of  this  kind,  much  of  the  chance  of  success,  depends  on  the 
season,  the  condition  of  the  slip  as  to  the  state  of  the  sap,  &c, 
and  the  care  and  judgment  employed  in  the  operation  of  plant- 
ing, &c,  for  it  must  be  remembered,  that  the  Peach  Tree  is 
one  of  the  most  delicate  and  difficult  plants  to  manage  that 
belongs  to  our  list  of  fruit  trees  ;  in  fact  its  true  character  and 
true  training,  seem  to  have  baffled  all  common  place  philo- 
sophy. 

3.  The  sprouts  springing  from  the  deeply  grounded  root, 
and  forming  the  Peach  Tree,  are  all  held  in  an  upright  and 
family-like  position,  by  the  body  of  earth  which  surrounds 
them ;  and  although  the  ground  in  which  they  stand  may 
be  extremely  rich,  and  full  of  appropriate  nourishment, — 
and  the  sap  very  profuse,  yet,  being  divided  among  so  many 
suckers,  it  affords  to  each  but  a  moderate  share  of  nutriment . 
and  that  share  may  be  easily  regulated  to  suit  any  quality 
of  ground  by  increasing  or  diminishing  the  number  of 
sprouts. 

One  great  object  in  this  mode  of  culture,  is  to  secure,  not 
a  rapid,  but  a  very  moderate,  not  to  say,  sloio  growth  of  the 
tree,  and  at  the  same  time,  a  sound  and  durable  quality  of 
timber,  with  a,  smooth  and  safe  bark  into  which  the  rain 
and  sleet  will  not  penetrate,  nor  will  the  frost  or  post-worm 
find  a  ready  entrance. 

4th.  But  should  the  White  Grub,  in  his  rambles,  or  the 
Black  Bug,  in  his  flights,  chance  to  reach  one  or  two  of 
these  sprouts,  or  even  all  of  them  at  a  single  visit,  which  in 
fact  would  be  a  very  rare  occurrence,  and  prey  upon  them, 
they  would  all  die  as  a  matter  of  course  ;  but  then  the  root 
is  safe ;  it  has  felt  neither  the  sting  of  the  one  nor  the  tooth 


FACT    NUMBER    THREE.  DO 

of  the  other :  and  it  will  soon  send  up  new  and  healthy 
shoots, — an  entire  health?/  and  graceful  Peach  Tree. 

Experience  has  proved  all  this,  and  it  has  also  proved, 
that,  in  such  cases,  an  excess  of  shoots  will  often  spring  up, 
and  make  a  too  minute  division  of  the  sap,  thereby  endan- 
gering- the  health  of  the  whole  family  of  sprouts  ;  therefore, 
these  sprouts  must  be  trimmed  out  and  the  number  gradu- 
ated to  the  condition  of  the  soil.  In  this  trimming  howev- 
er, some  thought  must  be  had  as  to  the  nature  and  state  of 
the  ground,  its  location,  pitch,  &c.  In  'poor  land,  some 
three  or  four  shoots  are  enough,  and  six  or  eight  in  rich 
soil.  Then,  as  to  the  relative  position  and  promise  of  the 
plants, — division  is  one  object,  the  preservation  of  the  largest 
and  most  thrifty,  is  another,  and  both,  and  all  demand  the 
exercise  of  judgment.  But.  let  it  be  borne  in  mind,  that  this 
surplusage  of  shoots,  let  them  come  whence  and  when  they 
may,  must  be  removed  only  at  early  trimming  time. 

These  thrifty  sprouts,  whether  from  the  root  of  the  nursery 
tree,  or  from  one  killed  by  the  grub,  will  begin  to  bear  fruit 
the  second  or  third  year ;  and  by  the  sixth  or  seventh  year, 
they  become  extremely  prolific  and  elegant.  In  this  way, 
the  stock  of  peach  trees  may  be  preserved  in  a  perfectly 
healthy  state,  secure  from  all  ordinary  casualties,  the  late 
Spring  frosts  excepted,  for  many  years  ;  ay,  for  whole  gene- 
rations, and  rarely  show  the  symptoms  of  the  yellows,  as 
the  sickly  foliage  is  generally  designated,  or  the  decay  of  a 
root  or  a  stem. 

It  may  here  be  observed  that,  in  order  to  promote  the  pu- 
rity of  the  jieach  orchard,  and  preserve  the  beauty  and 
quantity  of  the  fruit,  the  hog  should  be  allowed  the  free 
range  of  the  whole  ground,  from  early  grass  time  up  to  the 
ripening  of  the  choice  peach:  and  when  he  is  restrained 
from  this  range,  all  exposures  of  the  roots  of  trees,  to  the  rav- 
ages of  insects,  &a,  should  be  carefully  covered  up,  and  the 


56  FACT    NUMBER    THREE. 

ground  left  somewhat  rounding  or  rising  rather  than  hollow; 
for  standing  water  is  a  deadly  foe  to  the  Peach  Tree. 

This  plan  of  cultivation,  if  faithfully  pursued,  will,  if  there 
is  any  truth  to  be  drawn  from  experience  founded  on  expe- 
riments, ensure  the  permanent  growth  of  the  Peach  Tree, 
and  also  a  perminent  supply  of  peaches,  provided  there  were 
no  voracious  bugs  in  the  world  or  in  the  way.  But  as  these 
frightful  despoilers  of  the  growth  and  beauty  of  the  peach, 
and  almost  every  other  fruit,  are  actually  among  us,  and 
threaten  uncompromising  devastation,  it  may  be  proper,  in 
the  next  place,  to  see  what  may  be  done  with  them,  for  the 
time  being,  at  least,  and  for  the  protection  of  the  fruit  against 
their  ravages. 

We  have  already  referred  to  the  Black  Bug  which  comes 
from  the  little  grub-like  worm,  and  perforates  and  poisons 
the  peach  ;  and  now,  in  respect  to  this  insect,  we  will  further 
observe  that  three  different  modes  have  been  adopted  to  get 
rid  of  him.  and  the  seed  which  he  plants  to  propagate  his 
species.  Each  of  these  modes,  (though  neither,  nor,  indeed, 
all  united,  has  effected  an  entire  extermination,)  has,  in  fact- 
proved  greatly  beneficial  to  the  growth  and  beauty  as  well 
as  the  perfection  of  this  fruit. 

The  first  and  probably  the  most  effectual  mode  of  destruc- 
tion, is,  as  we  have  before  observed,  that  of  giving  the  Hog 
the  free  and  full  range  of  the  orchard  ground.  This  animal 
urged  by  a  ravenous  appetite,  is  very  prompt  to  gather  up 
all  the  wounded  peaches  which  fall  to  the  ground,  and  he  is 
not  less  prompt  to  devour  them,  and  so  far  he  effectually  de- 
vours the  seed  of  the  bug,  whether  in  the  form  of  an  egg,  or 
the  more  advanced  form  of  a  worm.  Here  the  hog  should 
remain,  gathering  his  daily  grub",  so  long  as  his  presence  does 
not  interfere  with  the  perfect  fruit  of  the  orchard. 

In  the  next  place  ; — as  the  period  of  the  existence  of  this 
bug,  is  very  brief,  and  as  he  traverses  the  air  on  the  wing 


FACT    NUMBER    THREE.  57 

during  the  warm  evenings  of  mid-summer ;  and.  further- 
more, as  he  is  always  attracted  in  the  dark,  toward  a  bright 
blaze ;  torches,  therefore,  have  been  provided  for  the  purpose, 
and  carried  through  the  orchard  immediately  after  dark,  and 
the  bug  has  been  caught  by  thousands  and  bagged  up  for 
subsequent  destruction. 

Lastly ; — Small  fires  have  been  built  at  several  points 
near  the  orchard  ground,  which  have  in  a  little  time  drawn 
nearly  all  these  insects  from  their  lurking  places  about  the 
trees  and  the  fruit,  directly  into  the  fire.  This  precaution, 
followed  up  nightly  for  a  few  weeks,  has  been  known  to  save 
the  fruit  effectually  for  the  whole  season. 

As  to  the  Rose  Bug,  the  fruit  spoiler  from  the  "  Queen 
of  Flowers,"  we  are  not,  in  truth,  famillM-  with  his  habits, 
nor  with  the  extent  of  his  ravages.  We  have  been  told,  how- 
ever, that  he  is  from  the  Dog  Rose,  generally,  and  makes 
his  flights  only  in  dry,  warm  sun-light.  If  this  be  true,  we 
desire,  as  an  appropriate  means  of  effecting  his  capture  and 
destruction,  to  recommend  a  machine,  which  was  primarily 
constructed  for  another  purpose. 

This  is  a  great  sheet, — cheap  cotton  factory  cloth,  formed 
so  as  to  be  spread  out,  on  all  sides,  beneath  the  boughs  of  the 
fruit  tree,  and  something  beyond  the  extremity  of  the  outer 
limbs ;  then,  if  sprinkled  moderately  with  water,  and  the 
bugs  shaken  from  the  tree  into  the  sheet,  they  will  remain 
until  they  may  be  gathered  Up  for  destruction. 

The  same  sheet  may  be  used,  as  long  experience  proves, 
without  the  trouble  of  sprinkling,  to  gather  the  destructive 
worm  called  the  caterpillar  and  hold  him  for  extermination  ; 
but  then  he  must  be  taken  before  he  forms  his  net- work  nest 
on  the  tree,  otherwise  it  is  no  easy  matter  to  dislodge  him  by 
a  simple  shake  of  the  boughs.  If  however  it  should  so  hap- 
pen that  he  escape  attention  until  he  gets  housed  about  by 
his  silken  web,  bidding  defiance  to  the  jostlings  of  the  hand 
or  the  winds,  and  the  peltings  of  the  rains,  then  he  must  be 


58 


FACT    NUMBER    THREE. 


taken  by  a  more  direct  and  sturdy  assault,  or  he  soon  endan- 
gers the  life  both  of  the  fruit  and  the  tree. 

If  the  hands  be  well  guarded  by  stout  buck-skin  mitts, 
and  a  light  ladder  be  employed  to  reach  his  castle,  fatal  bat- 
tle is  soon  waged.  True,  he  is  not,  indeed,  the  most  deli- 
cate thing  in  the  world  to  handle  whether  with  or  without 
mittens,  but  then  the  labor  of  an  utter  annihilation,  both  of 
house  and  tenant,  is  not  very  great  nor  veiy  dangerous  ;  and 
then,  if  the  wounded  tree  be  rubbed  over  with  a  little  soap 
or  candle  grease,  none  will  return  to  build  up  the  ruin. 


THE  SHEET  AND  EARLY  FRUIT  TREE. 

'The  first  idea  of  this  Great  Sheet,  was  suggested  by  a 
sense  of  the  want  of  some  safe  and  easy  means  by  which 
early  fruit  might  be  gathered  and  secured  without  subject- 


FACT    NUMBER    THREE.  59 

ing  it  to  severe  bruises  and  consequent  decay.  At  the  out- 
set, it  was  a  long  and  narrow  web,  attached  to  the  tree  by  a 
loop,  and  carried  round  by  the  hand;  but  when  it  was  made 
a  depository  for  the  worm,  it  was  constructed  after  the  man- 
ner represented  in  the  opposite  cut. 

When  this  sheet  is  designed  for  a  very  large  tree,  it  may  be 
made  thirty  feet  square;  but  one  of  half  that  size  will  answer 
for  the  peach  or  ordinary  apple  tree.  Its  construction  is  very 
simple  and  cheap,  and  being  of  two  equal  parts,  may  be  easily 
preserved,  by  being  rolled  up  like  a  flag,  round  the  pole  or 
rope  attached  to  the  border  of  each,  and  placed  under  cover. 

Though  Winter  Fruit  should  always  be  gathered  by  the 
hand,  individually,  and  with  more  care  and  tenderness  in  the 
handling  than  so  many  hen's  eggs,  yet  the  ordinary  Fall 
Fruit  as  well  as  the  Rare  Ripe,  may  be  gathered  by  this 
sheet,  and,  if  need  be,  piled  at  the  root  of  the  tree,  which  great- 
ly expedites  the  operation  of  picking  fruit.  In  connection 
with  the  treatment  of  the  Peach  Tree,  there  is  another  fact 
which  was  originally  intended  to  form  the  closing  part  of 
this  work,  but  which,  from  circumstances  beyond  our  pres- 
ent control,  cannot  now  be  broached.  The  Fact  here  refer- 
red to,  relates  principally  to  a  new  and  improved  mode  of 
Ingrafting,  Inoculating  and  Pruning  fruit  trees  in  gen- 
eral,— a  mode  which  experience  proves  to  be  an  important 
step  gained  in  the  art  of  cultivating  fruit. 

Now,  as  we  are  not  able  to  speak  on  this  point,  it  remains 
only  to  treat  of  the  frauds  which  have  crept  into  the  business 
of  the  nurserymen  and  which  seem  to  threaten  both  a  dirth 
of  fruit,  and  the  destruction  of  the  character  of  our  country 
in  her  ability  to  grow  fruit.  We  refer  to  this  matter  in  no 
other  spirit  than  that  of  regret. — a  painful  duty  ;  we  shall 
therefore  be  as  brief  as  possible. 

It  has  already  been  observed  that,  in  order  to  procure  safe 
and  healthy  seedling  stock  of  any  kind,  and  above  all  of 
the  Peach  Tree  kind,  the  ground  for  tie  nursery  plants, 


60 


FACT    NUMBER    THREE. 


should  be  of  a  choice  character ; — dry,  warm,  and  quick,  and 
free  from  stone,  grass,  shade  and  harbors  for  insects.  But  why 
demand  such  select  and  rare  quality  of  ground  ?  Because  this 
is  the  soil  which  recieves  the  seed  of  the  future  tree  ; — the 
soil  which,  by  a  secret  process  of  nature,  unwraps  the  sleep- 
ing germ  and  wakes  the  tender  shoot  to  life.  In  this  soft  and 
vivifying  mold,  the  stem  is  formed  and  thrown  upward  to 
be  nursed  in  the  air  by  the  kiss  of  the  breeze  and  the  sun- 
beam, and  the  root  is  drawn  downward  to  extract  its  nutri- 
ment as  a  child  draws  its  life  from  the  breast  of  the  mother. 
Now,  if  that  soil  be  cold,  or  wet,  or  barren, — if  it  be  a  sour 
clay,  or  a  sterile  sand-bank, — if  it  lie  in  the  shade  of  the  forest, 
the  hedge-row,  or  the  wild  grass,  what  must  be  the  nature 
of  the  nourishment  afforded  to  the  young  plant?  What 
would  be  said  of  a  mother's  designs  upon  her  child,  who,  in 
calling  in  the  aid  of  a  wet  nurse,  should  advertise  for  one 
with  a  cankered  breast !  Would  she  intend  for  the  young 
sprout  of  humanity,  a  fair  and  healthy  growth,  and  a  long 
and  happy  life,  or  would  she  not  purposely  entail  a  sickly  ex- 
istence and  a  premature  grave  ?  If,  then,  foul  intent  would  lie 
against  the  mother,  with  what  design  shall  the  nurseryman  be 
charged,  who,  year  in  and  year  out,  and  for  whole  loustrums 
of  years,  coolly  prepares  and  deliberately  vends  to  an  unsus- 
pecting and  honestly  confiding  community,  many  thousands 
of  nursery  fruit  trees  formed  on  seedling  plants  which  have 
been  nourished  from  the  seed  upward  only  at  the  cankered 
breast  ! — seedling  plants,  gathered  from  all  the  winds  of 
heaven,  and  all  the  bogs  and  waste  lands  of  the  earth  ! — 
sick  at  heart  and  eaten  up  by  vermin  at  the  root !  The  simple 
idea  of  such  plants,  brings  to  mind  the  enquiry  of  the  Pro- 
phet at  the  valley  of  dry  bones  : — Neighbor,  can  such  seed- 
ling plants  live?  Nurseryman,  thou  knowest  that  each 
and  every  hope  of  life  must  perish  ! 

We  speak  advisedly  and  within  the  bounds  of  fact,  when 
we  say  that  the  business  of  digging  seedling  roots,  employs 


FACT    NUMBER    THREE.  61 

for  a  part  of  the  year  at  least,  more  than  one  thousand  hands, 
and  that  more  than  one  hundred  thousand  of  these  wild 
and  diseased  roots,  come  to-the  New- York  market  annually, 
and  are  re-planted  in  the  neighboring- nurseries  !  From  these 
places,  they  are  subsequently  sold  out,  and  sent  to  every  part 
of  the  continent !  If  it  be  asked  how  this  traffic  is  conducted, 
the  question,  as  to  the  general  operation,  is  easily  answered. 
The  nurseryman  employs  laborers  who  go  out  into  the  fields, 
among  hedges,  and  over  waste  grounds,  and  redeem  this 
kind  of  stock  from  pasture  lands  and  waste  places,  and,  having 
cast  the  poor,  unsightly  upper  portion  away,  make  prize  of 
the  root  as  so  much  gain.  This  root  is  adopted  into  the 
warm  and  kindling  soil  of  the  nursery  ground,  where  the 
stump,  thus  reclaimed  from  the  fens  and  bogs  of  waste  lands, 
receives  a  graft  from  some  well  conditioned  fruit  tree,  and 
then,  to  an  unschooled  eye,  all  looks  fair  and  of  a  fair  promise. 
But  what  is  the  true  state  of  the  case  ?  Just  below  the  "  beau- 
tiful cion,"  there  remains,  covered  up  with  earth,  the  sickly 
seedling  root, — worm-eaten,  canker-smitten,  and  heart- wasted, 
beyond  the  reach  of  art, — the  healing  touch  of  nature,— and 
the  world  of  hope.  To  say  that  each  and  every  root  thus  re- 
claimed, is  necessarily  sick  and  worthless,  is  saying  too 
much  ;  it  is  possible  and  even  probable  that  among  so  many 
thousand,  a  few  may  be  found  sound  and  healthy  ;  and  it  is 
possible  also  that  a  selection  is  made,  and  the  actually  decayed 
roots  are  thrown  away.  Yet  many  of  our  nurserymen  know, 
we  presume,  and  if  they  do  not,  we  can  tell  them,  that,  if  all 
this  care  in  the  selection  be  made,  their  grounds  are  charged 
yearly,  with  perfectly  dead  seedling  stumps,  grafts  and  all, 
which,  when  first  planted,  were  too  far  gone  either  to  sprout  of 
themselves,  or  give  nourishment  to  the  adopted  cion. 

To  an  individual  familiar  with  the  nature  and  due  health 
of  seedling  plants,  this  base  botch- work  is,  in  fact,  no  cheat 
whatever ;  for  with  him,  the  very  gloss  of  the  bark,  the  tinge 
of  the  leaf,  or  the  leaf-bud,  the  simple  blush  of  the  plant, 


62  FACT    NUMBER    THREE. 

proclaims  its  condition,  and  every  attempt  at  deception,  lies 
as  open  to  his  eye  as  a  noon-tide  sunbeam.  It  is  the  want 
of  knowledge  in  this  behalf,  among  the  great  mass  of  man- 
kind, who  are  the  buyers,  not  the  raisers,  of  fruit  trees,  that 
has  opened  the  Avay  to  the  practice  of  impositions ;  and  though 
it  may  add  something  to  the  credit  and  standing  of  the 
American  bred  citizen,  to  say  the  frauds  lie  at  the  door  of  the 
nurseryman  from  abroad  more  generally  than  at  his,  still 
they  are  none  the  less  reprehensible,— none  the  less  disastrous 
both  to  the  propagation  of  good  fruit  and  the  moral  char- 
acter of  our  country.  "  I  bought  those  trees,"  (pointing  to  a 
yard  of  stinted  saplings,)  "  of  neighbor" ,  (said  a  gen- 
tleman of  fortune,  a  few  days  since,)  "  and  I  gave  him  a 
round  price  for  them,  for  he  pronounced  them  the  best  fruit 
in  his  nursery  ;  but,  I  hardly  know  how  it  is,  my  ground  I 
fear  is  not  of  the  right  kind  to  grow  fruit,  for  I  have  nursed 
them  with  unwearied  care  for  more  than  five  years,  yet  they 
have  never  shown  me  a  blossom  !  They  have  really  become 
an  eye-sore  to  me,  and  I  am  resolved  to  have  them  removed 
out  of  sight." 

In  a  few  minutes,  the  jack-knife  related  the  whole  history 
of  the  scrawny  fruit  trees;  everyone  of  them  was  canker 
eaten  at  the  root,  and  as  black  as  the  ace  of  spades  at  the 
heart,  and  they  had  all  been  death  smitten  long  before  they 
left  Mr. 's  nursery  ! 

Look  into  the  towns  and  villages  of  the  whole  western 
country,  and  the  complaint  will  be  found  almost  universal. 
Choice  fruit  trees,  as  they  were  called,  have  been  taken  from 
some  of  our  far  famed  neighboring  nurseries  to  the  distances 
of  two,  three,  and  even  four  thousand  miles,  at  a  most  griev- 
ous outlay  of  time  and  money,  with  the  hope  of  enjoying  the 
luxury  of  rich  and  elegant  table  fruit,  but  in  the  end,  every 
prospect  built  upon  the  boasted  purity  and  excellence  of  the 
stock,  has  utterly  perished.  Such  has  been  the  frauds  on  one 
side  and  the  disappointments  on  the  other,  that,  in  some  of  the 


PACT    NUMBER    THREE.  63 

western  states  companies  have  been  formed,  who  have  plant- 
ted  nurseries,  and  divided  an  interest  of  30  per  cent.  There 
is  one  of  this  kind  in  the  vicinity  of  St.  Louis  which  will  com- 
pare to  advantage,  if  not  in  point  of  extent,  at  least  in  respect 
to  the  purity  and  healthiness  of  stock  and  the  variety  and  rich- 
ness of  fruit,  with  the  best  nurseries  in  the  old  states.  An  in- 
terest is  now  forming  to  introduce  an  establishment  of  this 
kind  in  East  Florida,  for  the  express  purpose  of  supplying  our 
market  with  healthy  fruit  trees.  Here,  then,  the  evil  so  wan- 
tonly inflicted,  will  be  found,  as  it  ever  has  been  found,  to  re- 
coil in  the  end,  upon  the  heads  of  the  evil  doers.  These  frauds, 
these  cunningly  devised  cheats,  are  wrong ; — wrong  in  any 
state,  and  doubly  wrong  in  a  young  and  growing  state  like 
ours,  where  every  false  step  carries  us  back  toward  the  cor- 
rupt and  rotten  condition  of  the  old  countries  of  the  East,— a 
condition  to  which  no  true  son  of  America,  will  ever  feel 
ambitious  of  being  immediately  promoted. 

We  are  not  ignorant  of  the  fact  that  the  profession  of  pro- 
pagating and  training  nursery  trees  for  the  purposes  of  fruit, 
has  become  a  very  widely  spread  business  in  our  young 
confederacy,  and  that  large  estates  are  embarked  in  that 
pursuit.  Nor  are  we  ignorant  of  the  fact  that  some  of 
those  estates,  are  conducted  with  the  utmost  fairness,  and  with 
all  due  respect  to  the  character  and  standing  of  the  profes- 
sion, and  the  just  expectations  of  the  public  in  behalf  of  fair 
and  wholesome  fruit.  That  all  of  them  are  not  so  conduct- 
ed, is  the  evil  of  which  we  complain, — the  evil  which  we 
aim  to  cure.  How  far  we  shall  succeed  in  effecting  a  reme- 
dy, time  only  will  determine. 

We  are  fully  aware,  that  in  making  our  statements,  we  are 
stepping  on  the  toes  of  those  who  have  corns,  and  therefore, 
we  feel  bound,  for  the  present,  to  tread  lightly.  Though  to 
this  widely  sweeping  charge,  we  are  able  to  make  some  hon- 
orable exceptions,  we  deem  it  prudent  to  let  distinctions  rest 


64  FACT    NUMBER    THREE. 

where  they  are  until  we  see  the  effect  of  this  general  accusa- 
tion. 

Our  object  in  this  matter  is  merely  a  reformation  ;  we  ask 
for  it  without  delay,  and  we  indulge  the  hope  that  what 
we  have  now  said  in  the  premises,  will  accomplish  that  object. 
If,  however,  we  find  our  just  expectations  denied,  and  these 
fraud's  continued,  we  have  some  other  facts  for  the  public, 
and  with  them  we  have  also  a  list  of  names  and  places,  and 
shall  feel  bound  to  speak  out  in  terms  that  will  not  be  mis- 
understood. We  can  disclose  some  transactions  in  the  way  of 
nursery  dealing,  which  will  not  bear  the  light  and  leave  their 
authors  to  bask  in  the  sunshine  of  public  favor. 

In  concluding  our  labor,  we  desire  to  say  that,  in  stating 
our  "  Prime  Facts"  we  have  adopted  such  language  only 
as  will  be  readily  understood  by  the  plain  man  and  the  Far- 
mer. At  the  same  time,  however,  we  have  endeavored  to 
place  the  subject  in  a  form  not  altogether  below  the  attention 
or  the  interest  of  more  learned  individuals ;  we  therefore 
venture  a  hope  that  the  discoveries  here  put  forth  by  our 
worthy  citizen,  to  whose  ideas  we  have  merely 'given  form, 
will  not  disappoint  public  expectation.' 


